Man says a teen on a scooter assaulted him blocks away from Romare Bearden Park

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – A Charlotte man is walking WBTV through the moment, he says, he was assaulted.

He says it happened just blocks away from Romare Bearden Park and the attacker was a teen on a scooter.

On Wednesday, CMPD said they have ramped up enforcement efforts after they say aggressive bike and motorized vehicle riders are endangering drivers and pedestrians.

WBTV’s Dee Dee Gatton spoke to a man whose identity WBTV is protecting, that says he’ll never look at this place the same way, after what happened to him nearby.

Parker often rides his one wheel through uptown.

Tuesday night, he says, there were teenagers on scooters near the water fountains at Romare Bearden Park.

Parker says, they weren’t paying attention, nearly knocked him down, and he talked to them about it.

“I tried to apologize to the one kid but they were still posturing and acting like they wanted to fight.”

Parker says he left, but one of the teens followed him on a scooter for about four blocks.

“He caught me on the onewheel, tried to knock me off of it again, at that point, he threw a punch, and we started fighting.

Parker says, as he was letting the teen go, he said, “He was going to burn me, he was going to get his gun and shoot me.”

Parker says, he’s seen groups of young people on bikes and has been threatened but never hurt like he was this week.

“As you’re trying to bring people back into uptown after the pandemic, you really want it to be pedestrian-friendly for everybody and people are feeling that that’s not really the case.”

Parker says, he sees police in Uptown, but he’d like more enforcement.

After the incident, he filed a police report.

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