Queens father sues NYPD, claiming cops deliberately hit moped carrying his son

A new lawsuit alleges the NYPD uses vehicles to force motorized scooters and bikes to stop, against police policy. File photo by William Perugini/Shutterstock

By Ryan Schwach

A Queens father is suing the city and the NYPD, accusing officers of deliberately crashing into a moped his son was on while trying to make a stop.

Mahmoud Saleh filed the suit in September in the Eastern District of New York, accusing cops of violating NYPD guidelines when they crashed into the moped, severely injuring his teenage son.

On July 30, the 14-year-old was riding on the back of a moped driven by someone else in Corona near Northern Boulevard. They were traveling alongside several others driving mopeds, including one who had been arrested by the police.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers, who wanted to stop the moped’s driver for an unknown reason, accelerated their car while driving behind the moped before crossing into the path of the motorized vehicle, causing a “head-on collision."

“He was an innocent passenger who had committed no crime and had no control over its speed or direction,” the lawsuit said. “The collision threw him violently onto the pavement, knocked him unconscious, and caused a fractured femur requiring surgery and a hematoma to his head.”

The suit, which names 10 unnamed cops as defendants, further claims the officer behind the wheel of the car didn’t make any effort to get the moped to stop, such as using the vehicle’s lights or sirens.

“[Defendant officer] used the NYPD vehicle itself as an instrument of force against a fourteen-year-old passenger riding on a moped,” the lawsuit said. “Whatever lawful interest Defendants may have had in stopping the moped or issuing a summons to its operator was, at most, an interest in enforcing minor traffic regulations. That interest could not justify intentionally using a police vehicle to cause a collision with a moped occupied by a child passenger.”

After falling unconscious from the collision, the 14-year-old woke up in handcuffs, but was never charged with a crime.

He was taken to Harlem Hospital, and was later moved to Bellevue, where he was treated for severe head injuries for several weeks.

“These have been devastating injuries,” Jon Norinsburg, Saleh’s attorney, told the Eagle. “He had a very long period where he was recuperating, and he's just recently started rehabilitation. He's going to have very, very severe and permanent injuries for the rest of his life. It's not going to get better when he grows older.”

The attorneys for the Queens father and his son further claim in the suit that the cops’ actions went against NYPD guidelines that prohibit officers from using their cars to strike another vehicle during a pursuit.

However, the suit claims that the NYPD, more recently, has been using their cars as obstacles to intercept two-wheeled vehicles in order to stop them as the city cracks down on the use of illegal motorized bikes and scooters.

The suit said that the NYPD has “maintained, permitted, tolerated, and acquiesced in an unwritten policy,” allowing the practice to continue.

“This has happened in multiple repeated cases involving some variation of the same fact pattern where somebody's on a bike or a scooter, and the officer's vehicle comes in contact with them and knocks them to the ground,” said Norinsburg. “This is just reckless, very dangerous conduct that's extremely likely to result in serious injury or death. It needs to stop.”

The city has made efforts in recent years to curb the use of police vehicles in pursuits.

An investigation by The City Reporter last year discovered that through stretches of 2023 and 2024, police chases resulted in more than a collision per day on average and led to numerous deaths and hundreds of injuries.

The spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said the agency is aware of the complaint and will review it.

The NYPD did not respond to the Eagle’s request for comment, but told the Daily News that an internal investigation remains ongoing. The officers involved were assigned to the 115th Precinct in Queens, and were conducting a joint operation with the Community Response Team assigned to Patrol Borough Queens North.

CRTs, created under former Mayor Eric Adams, have faced criticism for their policing practices. In August, the NYPD’s independent monitor said that specialized patrol units like the CRTs regularly committed illegal stops, frisks and searches throughout last year.