Cyclist Knocked Off Bike By Cop Car Sues NYPD: Reports

CORONA, QUEENS -- A Queens cyclist who was arrested after he tumbled from his bike in a police stop sued the officers for using excessive force during the incident.

Heins Rodriquez, 26, claims in a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court that officers deliberately ran him off the road while he was biking in Corona and then cuffed him on resisting arrest charges to coverup the excessive force, multiple news outlets have reported.

Rodriguez was biking without a helmet along 43rd Avenue in August 2015 when an unmarked cop car pulled up behind him and he was knocked to the ground, the New York Daily News reported.

Two cops then got out of the car and cuffed Rodriguez for resisting arrest, according to his lawsuit.

Rodriguez's lawyers claim video footage caught on a private security camera backs up his version of events. He said cops purposefully hit him, or at least came "unreasonably close," with their unmarked car, according to the Daily Mail.

The cops in the case - Officers Zheng Zuopeng and Alen Chen - claimed Rodriquez flailed around and refused to be handcuffed as they were trying to arrest him, the news outlet reported.

But video footage appears to counter that claim, showing Rodriquez standing nearly motionless as the cops spring from their car to cuff him and sit him down on the sidewalk.

Cops argued in court filings that the video was "inconclusive" and talk of a cover up is "speculation," the Daily News reported.

Authorities noted they also found 12 bags of marijuana in Rodriguez's backpack, but the misdemeanor drug charges were later dismissed, according to the news outlet.

Rodriquez claimed the arrest left him with chronic back pains from his fall and a lingering uneasiness with the NYPD.

"Like I don't feel the same way about them as I used to," he testified.

Gabriel Harvis, one of his lawyers, told the Daily News that the suit is about "dangerous pursuit tactics and officers who willingly lied in an effort to cover them up."

"When officers can manufacture evidence as we see here, no one is safe," Harvis said.

Rodriguez is suing for damages, but the terms were unspecified, the Daily News reported.

(Lead photo via Patch)