Press Release
ILLEGAL SCOOTERS SEIZED BY OFFICERS FROM DA’S OFFICE AND NYPD
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that more than 40 illegal motorized scooters were seized as part of a joint operation between her office and local police precincts in response to the vehicles’ persistent involvement in crimes, including drive-by shootings, and traffic collisions. The scooters were seized from locations along Roosevelt Avenue and in Long Island City.
District Attorney Katz said: “The often careless and dangerous operation of motorized scooters on our roads, and even our sidewalks, has become an urgent concern. Their use to commit violent crimes and escape will not be tolerated and requires immediate action. We are partnering with the NYPD to do proactive enforcement to make our streets and communities safer for law-abiding New Yorkers.”
NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban said: “This latest operation in the NYPD’s citywide efforts to curb the illegal use of motorized scooters has undoubtedly made the people of Queens safer. New Yorkers see it every day: People putting others at risk by recklessly operating unregistered scooters, speeding through red lights, and riding on sidewalks. In addition to blatant traffic violations, some riders commit shootings, robberies, and other violent acts. With the help of our law enforcement partners, the NYPD is committed to ending these acts of lawlessness that diminish quality of life and threaten public safety.”
A total of 43 scooters were seized for being illegally parked on sidewalks along busy commercial strips with high pedestrian traffic. Detectives from the district attorney’s office working with officers from the NYPD’s 110th , 114th and 115th Precincts searched ten locations in Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Corona and Long Island City. Of the 43 scooters confiscated, nearly all were unregistered.
Additional operations are planned in Queens as part of an effort to get illegal unregistered motorized scooters off the road.
The use of an illegal scooter to commit a crime garnered headlines last year when a Brooklyn man was indicted for murder and five counts of attempted murder after being charged with randomly firing from a motorbike at pedestrians and a fellow motorist during a shooting spree in Queens that left an 86-year-old man dead and two others wounded.
The operation was conducted in partnership with members of the NYPD by the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau under the supervision of Sergeants Agim Rugova, David Joglar, and Felix Ramos, Lieutenant Janet Helgeson, and under the overall supervision of Assistant Chief of Detectives Daniel O’Brien.