Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys, the Las Vegas teenagers being tried as adults in the deliberate murder of a bike-riding former Bell, California police chief, both pled not guilty to several felony counts at their arraignment Wednesday.
The two teens, 17 and 16 at the time of their alleged August crime spree, are accused of at least three hit-and-runs while joyriding in a stolen car, including fatally running down 64-year old Andreas “Andy” Probst from behind as they laughingly filmed the attack.
Ayala and Keys are also accused of deliberately targeting another man riding a bicycle, although apparently he was not seriously injured.
They’re charged with murder, attempted murder, battery and residential burglary, as well as multiple counts of automobile grand larceny and possession of a stolen vehicle.
They each face up to life in prison if convicted on the murder charges, despite Ayala’s boast to the cops at the time of his arrest that he’d be out in 30 days.
Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels.
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Kaitlin Armstrong, the woman accused of killing gravel cycling star Moriah “Mo” Wilson, made a run for it Wednesday, attempting to escape from sheriff’s deputies as she was being led back to a patrol car following a doctor’s appointment.
Armstrong is accused of fatally shooting Wilson last year in a jealous rage, in what she apparently perceived as a love triangle involving her then-boyfriend, pro cyclist Colin Strickland, who had been briefly involved with Wilson.
Armstrong was already considered a flight risk following her arrest in Costa Rico after a 43-day manhunt.
She had reportedly died her hair and undergone plastic surgery in an effort to change her appearance and hide her identity.
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After wielding his veto pen to strike down bike-friendly legislation, including a bill to allow sidewalk riding throughout the state, California Governor Gavin Newsom actually signed a safety bill yesterday.
Newsom added his signature to Assembly Bill 413, known as the Daylighting Bill, which will ban parking within 20 feet of a marked crosswalk to increase visibility and improve safety for pedestrians, as well as anyone else stopped at or using the intersection.
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Apparently, there really is an app for that.
Yesterday, I learned there’s an app to help organize bike buses to help kids get to school safely.
Which could probably be used to arrange bike commuting rides to find greater safety in numbers, as well.
So bad and unnecessary.
I'm in California -not in policy – how can our app help? We encourage people to bike in groups (#BikeBus) and our app https://t.co/EAAmqNOtLe tries to do that.
If we can help organize rides better and people are more visible to drivers, will that help?
— BikeBus (@BikeBusApp) October 11, 2023
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
We missed this one when I was out of commission with eye problems a couple weeks back, as a driver in a massive SUV attempted to terrorize a velomobile e-recumbent rider in El Cajon, California last month, which was compounded by a lecture from a cop who didn’t know the law.
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Local
Streetsblog says Metro didn’t follow its own designs, let alone city-approved, CEQA-approved street standards, in providing access to the new Downtown Connector stations, implementing undefined changes focused on getting drivers onto freeways instead of providing the promised bike and walk facilities.
A letter from longtime LA-area bike advocate Kent Strumpell says Los Angeles can alter the course of the automobile’s role in climate change, and meet the pope’s call for bold climate action, with the rapid installation of a fully functional, citywide, protected bikeway network. From his keyboard to God’s ear. Or at least the mayor’s.
State
The CHP has received a federal grant to support its education and enforcement efforts to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety throughout the state. Although we’d all be better served if they used the money to train their officers in bike law, and how to investigate bike crashes without their usual windshield bias.
San Diego Magazine lists eight of the city’s best bike events to attend each year, starting with next month’s Bike and Beer San Diego.
A young Frenso girl was lucky to survive with minor injuries when she was struck by a pickup driver while riding her bike, and ended up pinned under the truck.
Manteca is just the latest California city calling for a crackdown on reckless teenage ebike riders.
San Anselmo will conduct a study of the downtown area on how to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Sad news from Sierra County, where a Berkeley man was found dead after apparently riding his mountain bike off a trail; his body was found about a hundred yards downstream from where his bike was recovered.
National
AARP offers a pretty extensive tutorial on the different types of bikes for different riders and situations. And since they include balance bikes, it’s probably safe to say they’re not all aimed at their target market.
Trek has launched the industry’s first bicycle trade-in program, accepting used bikes made by the company for trade at their eponymous stores. Which makes me wonder what they’d give me for my first-gen mass production 1980 Trek roadie. For a change, read it on AOL if Bicycling blocks you.
Bicycling introduces Bivo founder Carina Hamel, saying she’s disrupting the bicycling water bottle market one stainless steel water bottle at time. This time, you can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
At least one Portland hotel now approves of a recently contested downtown bike lane, insisting they want the hotel to be a welcoming space for bike riders, after the hotel’s former GM criticized the bike lane for what she termed dangerous conditions.
There’s not a pit deep enough for the bike thief who stole an adaptive tricycle from a 23-year old special needs man in Arizona.
The building that formerly housed my not-so-local Denver bike shop, which I traveled across the city to frequent, caught on fire last night, but it was quickly extinguished by firefighters; developers plan to raze the former local icon to build an 18-story mixed-use tower.
It takes a special kind of scumbag to drive off and leave a bike-riding five-year old Colorado kid bleeding in the street.
The highly anticipated movie Bike Vessel, which premiers this week at the Chicago Film Festival, tells the story of a father who took up bicycling after surviving three open-heart surgeries, and the son who joined him on a “rigorous” journey by bike from St. Louis to Chicago.
New York’s Black-owned Amsterdam News says there’s no going back, as ebikes continue to make inroads into neighborhoods of color throughout the city.
New York bike riders rallied to protest the city’s second-highest number of bicycling deaths ever, while calling out the mayor’s apparent lack of concern, even though he was considered a consistent ally when he served in the state senate.
That’s more like it. A 19-year old Richmond, Virginia man was sentenced to spend the next ten years and a month behind bars, after a judge suspended most of a 30-year sentence for plowing into a pair of bike-riding women while driving drunk and stoned, killing one and critically injuring the other.
International
A British man, who was placed in a medically induced coma for nearly two weeks after suffering major injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in 2017, is now planning to take part in a fundraising hill climb challenge to benefit the air ambulance service he credits with saving his life.
Competitive Cycling
A new report accuses pro cycling of putting profits over safety, saying elite cycling has a “profound safety problem,” with safety “taking a backseat in the pursuit of performance or profit.”
The Intermarché-Circus-Wanty cycling team abruptly pulled Madis Mihkels from China’s upcoming Tour of Guangxi, after the 20-year old pro was shown making a racist gesture on social media by pulling back his eyes in mockery of Asians.
Three-time US Pro crit champ Luke Lamperti will join L39ION of Los Angeles as a guest cyclist at the inaugural invitation-only CRIT Championship in St. Petersburg, Florida later this month.
Finally…
That feeling when a minor suffers minor injuries after getting hit by a deer that was hit by a driver. If you were stopped by a motorcycle officer in East Valinda, you may have gotten a fake ticket from a fake cop.
And apparently crappy bike infrastructure is a problem everywhere.
We’re delighted to have opened the world’s first ‘service station for cyclists’ today! Worth every penny of the £30 million the government gave us for green initiatives. pic.twitter.com/qOk2KiVBCw
— Stansaid Airport (@StansaidAirport) October 10, 2023
Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
