Law enforcement has arrested a BMW driver captured on video allegedly causing a road rage incident while throwing items at a professional cyclist.
Samir Sweiss from the city of Corona was arrested March 26 by Newport Beach Police, which said on social media that it executed a search warrant immediately before.
Sweiss was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and obstruction or delay of the arrest. “The investigation is still ongoing, and no further information will be released at this time,” the police department said Friday.
The incident happened March 21 at 11 a.m., according to police, when video shows a blue BMW sedan in a bike lane trailing very closely behind a man on a bicycle. The cyclist jumps a curb at one point to avoid the incoming vehicle.
As the vehicle passes the cyclist, a passenger appears to throw water at the cyclist in the video.
Luke Fetzer, the professional cyclist, said on social media that before the viral video moment, the vehicle driver swerved at him at an intersection, then shouted slurs at them before the next traffic light toward Pacific Coast Highway.
“I was angry, adrenaline was pumping. These guys had just tried to kill us by swerving their cars at us,” Fetzer said. He then acknowledged that at the traffic light, he grabbed his water bottle and “in the heat of the moment” squirted on the car.
Then, the video incident happened, and Fetzer said he began “filming for my own safety.”
Then things get worse, according to Fetzer. A few more miles down the road at a Shake Shack, four individuals got out of their cars and blocked cyclists.
“They told us they were going to kill us and tried tackling us,” said Fetzer, who added two other cyclists not involved with the incident also got put in harm’s way.
Police were contacted, and when officers arrived on scene, a bicyclist needed medical attention for his injuries and was transported to a hospital, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Police said they took the blue BMW sedan in as evidence, and bodycam video of the arrest showed a man with frazzled hair and a green shirt being led to a vehicle with hands appearing to be handcuffed.
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