Driver hits teen bicyclist and travels for miles with him stuck on roof, CT cops say
A driver hit a teenager on a bicycle and drove more than four miles with the boy stuck on the roof of his car — then stopped to push him off onto the side of the road, police in Connecticut said.
Two people riding in another car saw the driver, identified as 29-year-old Alex Joel Rivera, stop on the side of the road and “felt something was wrong” after noticing him driving “erratically” in Avon the evening of Oct. 4, the Avon Police Department said in an Oct. 7 news release.
The “good Samaritans” drove back to the area where they saw Rivera stop and found the injured teen, a 10th grade student at Avon High School, and called 911, according to police. He was taken to a hospital.
The collision left Liam Shields, 16, in critical condition, WFSB reported.
Hours after he was hit, the teen’s mother, Andrea Shields, wrote Oct. 5 on Facebook that “Doctors are working hard to keep him alive from multiple brain bleeds and a severely fractured leg.”
Liam Shields was put into a medically induced coma, according to his mother.
In an update the evening of Oct. 9, Andrea Shields wrote that a doctor and neurosurgeon are bringing her son out of the medically induced coma, which could “take hours to days.”
“We will patiently be waiting at his bedside until he wakes up,” Andrea Shields wrote.
Rivera has been arrested on charges of first-degree reckless endangerment, evading responsibility-serious physical injury, operating a motor vehicle without a license and two counts of risk of injury to a child, police said. More charges are pending, according to police.
He was arraigned at Hartford Superior Court Oct. 7, according to authorities.
Rivera is being represented by a public defender’s office in Hartford, court records show. McClatchy News contacted David Warner, the office’s supervisor, for comment Oct. 10 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
After Rivera struck Liam Shields on Oct. 4, police said they received a call from a witness who reported debris in the road where the teen was hit.
When officers arrived, they found a damaged bike, scattered candy and a cell phone, police said.
The officers realized a bicyclist was hit, but didn’t find Liam Shields until the two witnesses located him a few miles away, according to police.
Rivera knew he hit someone while he was driving with three other people, the owner of the car and two children, that evening, according to an arrest warrant WFSB reported.
Rivera later said to authorities that Liam Shields “came out of nowhere” and he thought the teen had “rolled off” his car until his passenger, who owned the car, saw a foot dangling near Rivera’s window, the arrest warrant says, according to the outlet.
Rivera told police he “freaked out” and pushed Liam Shields off the car, the outlet reported.
On Oct. 9, a prayer service was held for the teen, according to Andrea Shields.
“All of your prayers and well wishes mean so much to our family, and we can’t wait to tell Liam how much his community loves him,” she wrote on Facebook.
Rivera is in custody and is being held on a $100,000 bond, court records show. He is due back in court Nov. 4.
Avon is about a 10-mile drive northwest from Hartford.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Driver hits teen bicyclist and travels for miles with him stuck on roof, CT cops say."
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