The 15-year-old boy charged with smashing his bicycle on a BMW on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on Tuesday afternoon has denied being involved in the bike gang attack, claiming he had been buying a birthday present for his mother at the time.
Geovanni Valle, of Corona, Queens, was released from a juvenile detention center on Thursday after he was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and rioting in connection to the incident.
The boy was taken into custody after police were able to identify him from video footage showing a mob of teenagers beating up a luxury SUV while New Yorker Max Torgovnick and his elderly mother were inside.
Speaking to the New York Post after his release, Geovanni insisted police had apprehended the wrong person, claiming he was not even at the scene and had been shopping at Queens Center Mall when the attack took place.
‘I wasn’t even there,’ Valle told the Post. ‘It was my mom’s birthday. I was shopping for her present, a sweater and shoes,’ he said, while showing a receipt from a Footaction store with a 3.49pm timestamp.
In an interview with DailyMail.com on Thursday, the teen’s father, Oscar Valle, and older brother Christian Valle, echoed his claims, saying Geovanni had been falsely accused and corroborated his alibi that he had been shopping.
‘The NYPD is falsely accusing my brother of a crime he did not commit. They are basically just saying he is guilty without providing any proof. What happened to [being]innocent until proven guilty?’ Christian said.
At the time of Geovanni’s arrest on Wednesday, Christian said the family had asked police for proof that the boy had been at the scene of the crime at the time.
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Geovanni Valle, 15, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and rioting in connection to a bike gang attack on Tuesday after police identified him through video footage (left) that showed him smashing his bicycle on BMW. His family (right) however, claim the boy has been falsely accused and was actually buying gifts for his mom at the time
At the time of Geovanni’s arrest, the family were shown stills from the now-viral video that showed a boy that resembled Geovanni in a blue and grey hoodie (pictured) hurling his bike at the windshield of the car during the 4pm incident
But the family says the boy in the video couldn’t be Geovanni because he had been shopping at Queens Center Mall at the time of the incident. Pictured above are the sneakers (left) he bought at Footaction that day and the receipt (right) timestamped at 3.49pm
The family also provided photos of the birthday celebration held at their home for Geovanni’s mother, for whom he had been buying gifts at the mall
They were shown stills from the now-viral video that showed a boy that resembled Geovanni in a blue and grey hoodie hurling his bike at the windshield of the car during the 4pm incident.
‘We have proof that he wasn’t there. His phone tracks his location and it shows where he’s been,’ Christian said, as he pulled up Geovanni’s iPhone which indicated he was at Queens Center Mall between 3.39pm and 4.04pm on Tuesday.
‘After that, he went to Empanadas Cafe on 108th St from 4.38 to 5.17pm,’ he explained. His father also provided photos of the Footaction receipt from Geovanni’s purchase at the mall.
Christian said he has now requested surveillance camera footage from the footwear store as further evidence that Geovanni had been shopping at the mall and not breaking the law.
The brother and father also provided photos of the sneakers Geovanni bought for his mom at the mall as well as the decorations for her birthday celebration at their home.
The family also dismissed authorities’ claims that one of the boys who was filmed at the scene smashing his bike on the car’s windshield was Geovanni, despite the striking resemblance.
Oscar denied the connection, telling the Post the boy in the footage was ‘much taller and very strong’, while his son ‘is a skinny guy.’
Max Torgovnick (pictured) a 36-year-old son of a neurologist from Upper East Side, was behind the wheel when the mob of teens started leaping on the vehicle and stomping on its windshield as his elderly mother wept beside him
Geovanni also told the Post he couldn’t see a resemblance. ‘I don’t think it looks like me,’ he said.
‘It’s crazy. I know people don’t have no life, they just do stuff like that. I was watching it on Instagram. I didn’t think it was going to come back on me,’ he added.
The teen’s other brother Jonathan Valle, however, admitted that while there was some likeness between the two boys, it couldn’t be his sibling because Geovanni doesn’t own a bike.
‘I feel depressed seeing my kid put in handcuffs, treated like a criminal,’ Oscar said, adding that his son is only 15.
The NYPD on Thursday confirmed police had arrested and charged Geovanni in connection to the incident and are still searching for other members of the gang.
It comes as new video emerged on social media that showed the mob of teenage boys targeting a yellow taxi moments before their attack on the BMW.
The gang was seen minutes earlier intimidating a cab driver and holding up traffic as they surrounded his vehicle just eight blocks north on 29th Street and Fifth Ave.
The teens tried to smash the man’s taxi, prompting him to get out of the vehicle and inspect the damage.
At that point, one of the teens threw his bike at the driver’s back. They then moved south down Fifth Avenue, where they carried out the attack on Torgovnick’s BMW.
Max Torgovnick, who hails from the Upper East Side, was behind the wheel when the mob started leaping on the vehicle and stomping on its windshield as his elderly mother wept beside him and screamed ‘They are going to kill us’.
Video footage emerged on social media showing a teenage bike gang surrounding a yellow taxi on on 29th Street and Fifth Ave, just eight blocks north from where they attacked a BMW
The teens were seen holding up traffic as they tried to smash the man’s taxi, prompting the driver to get out of the vehicle and inspect the damage
At one point, one of the boys was seen hitting the man on his back with his bike
The fact that the attack was carried out against random residents on a busy Manhattan street in broad daylight has left locals shaken. They say it is evidence that Big Apple officials are failing to protect them amid surging rates of violent crime.
Recently, there have been various reports of teen bicycle gangs menacing and assaulting New Yorkers at random. Police are calling the practice ‘bike outs’.
Bike outs are often organized on social media, and the large groups of teen troublemakers block off streets and fill parks, harassing pedestrians. Bike outs have typically been common in the summer, but with school closures still in effect, it appears the roving gangs are now out on the Big Apple streets more regularly.
On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio told CBS that the attack was ‘absolutely unacceptable’. However, he offered no plans as to how to ensure similar attacks do not occur again in the future.
Tuesday’s incident occurred while Torgovnick, 36, and his mother, 74, were driving across town in the BMW after dropping off a holiday donation to a local charity.
The pair encountered the large group of youngsters biking up Fifth Avenue near 21st Street who suddenly set upon their vehicle.
Pictured: A still from the video of the incident which saw a group of teenagers attacking the SUV in Manhattan. Shown from two angles, one of the teenagers is seen jumping on the windshield of the car, smashing it in the centre with both feet
‘We were trapped, there was so much violence, I thought I was going to die,’ the terrified female passenger and mother of Torgovnick reportedly said after the attack
Another still taken from videos of the attack on the SUV. In this picture, one of the teens is seen using his bicycle to hit the front of the vehicle. The same moment is shown from two angles
Speaking to the CBS New York, Torgovnick – who is the son of a neurologist – said that he feared he and his mother could be killed.
‘When he smashed the glass, at that point my biggest fear was, they’re going to get in the car, they’re going to pull me out, and I could be killed,’ Torgovnick told the network.
‘All I could hear was my mother crying and screaming. That’s what haunts me the most,’ he added, before recalling how his car was surrounded after one of the bikers crashed into the back of the car.
‘Before I knew it, my mom is crying. She’s screaming into the phone to the 911 operator, ‘Help! Send help! We are going to die. They are going to kill us,” he added.
According to eyewitnesses, the teens began blocking traffic and started to attack the luxury car.
Shocking video shows several teens punching the BMW’s windows and stomping on its hood.
One youngster can be seen jumping on top of the SUV and smashing in its front windshield.
Bystanders say there were dozens of teens on the scene, many of whom cheered as the windshield was kicked in.
The cowardly collective of youngsters quickly fled on their bicycles as pedestrians shouted at them to go home.
The car was surrounded by the group of up to 50 teenagers, according to witnesses to the attack. One of the teenagers was filmed trying to smash one of the rear windows of the car as it was surrounded by the mob
As the driver of the car tried to escape, the mob of teens continued to follow the SUV down the Manhattan street. The BMW was adorned with medical license plates, but that did nothing to deter the gang of brazen teens
Torgovnick was forced to dial 911 with police nowhere to be seen. By the time cops arrived at the scene, the teens had sped off. Pictured: The teens with their bikes block the way of the car as the driver tries to flee the attack
Torgovnick spoke to CBS New York after the incident. ‘All I could hear was my mother crying and screaming. That’s what haunts me the most,’ he said, before recalling how his car was surrounded after one of the bikers crashed into his car
Another witness said the attackers spat on the car and broke a handle as they tried to open the door and get inside.
The BMW was adorned with medical license plates, but that did nothing to deter the gang of brazen teens.
Torgovnick was forced to dial 911 with police nowhere to be seen. By the time cops arrived at the scene, the teens had sped off.
One witness said Torgovnick’s mother was ‘shaking and in tears’.
‘We were trapped, there was so much violence, I thought I was going to die,’ she reportedly said.
‘That’s something like you would see on the streets of a war zone. I never thought New York would get this bad,’ Torgovnick told The New York Post.
The startled driver now wants to know how similar attacks will be prevented in the future.
‘I’ve lived here my entire life as a New Yorker, for 36 years. I feel like I’m entitled to answers from the city as to what allowed this to happen and what they’re going to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ he told CBS.
Mayor de Blasio didn’t have a direct response.
‘This is something that’s just wrong, period. We gotta teach our children better all the time. It’s incumbent upon all of us, but we also have to have consequences and there will be consequences in this case,’ the Mayor said in a statement to CBS.
Another witness said the attackers spat on the car and broke a handle as they tried to open the door and get inside
It comes as New York authorities struggle to combat a surge in crime.
Crime stats from the four weeks between November 30 – December 27 show violent crime is far higher than it was at the same time last year.
In the 28 days to December 27 2020 there were 21 murders – an increase of 61.5 percent when compared with the same dates in 2019.
There was also a 4.2 percent increase in rapes, and a staggering 122.4 percent surge in shootings.
Violent crime began spiking following a $1 billion cut to the NYPD’s budget which was approved this past summer following passionate protests to defund the police.
Officials have failed to take responsibility for the surge in crime, instead shifting blame.
NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told NY1 earlier this month that changes to bail laws as well as progressive policies that encourage criminal justice reform are making the city more dangerous.
‘Until we come to that realization as a society — is this what we want?’
‘It’s good to have philosophical discussions about ‘end mass incarceration’ and ‘end incarceration’ but you don’t want to do it by turning the innocent public into jails in their own apartments and houses.’
Shea’s boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio, pushed back on the commissioner’s comments.
The mayor told reporters at a City Hall meeting on December 8 that the surge in violent crime this year can be pinned on an ‘absolute perfect storm’ that hit New York this year.
‘You cannot combine a massive health crisis, tens of thousands of people dying, hospitals overwhelmed, economy is shut down, schools are shut down, houses of worship shut down, society not having its normal moorings all at once, a social justice crisis…’ the mayor said.
‘Come on, this is not like anything we have seen in our history and I believe not like anything we will see again in our lifetimes.’
De Blasio acknowledged there had been an ‘uptick in violence’ though he added that it is ‘clearly being addressed because we’re regluing the situation together again.’
Crime stats from the four weeks between November 30 – December 27 show violent crime is far higher than it was at the same time last year