Chaos unfolded in the middle of a busy street in Boston's South End Tuesday afternoon, with a driver allegedly assaulted after a large group of young people on bicycles surrounded his vehicle.
Video of the incident is difficult to make out but you can see what appears to be a group of bicyclists -- nearly 40 bikes, according to one witness -- surrounding a car on Tremont Street.
"I was doing work and I heard this noise and couldn't figure it out and went to the window and I saw this cluster of maybe 2-3 dozen kids on bikes," one man who witnessed the mayhem said.
Koffi Ballo showed NBC10 Boston his busted lip later Tuesday night, and the blood splatter all over his pants after he says someone punched him while he was still sitting in his car.
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"A lot of people in the street, I can do nothing. I pull over and then I'm waiting for them to move and then I don't know, boom," he explained of what happened.
Ballo said he was driving down the road around 3:40 p.m. in the South End, after leaving his first job and heading to his second job, when he saw people -- who he thinks were around 18 or 20 years old -- fighting in the street. Suddenly he was hit, he said.
"I was sitting in my car. I put the window a little bit down. I said, 'oh please can you move one of the bicycles?'" Ballo shared.
Local
Boston police confirm they responded to the area of 571 Tremont Street for an assault and battery in progress shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday. Responding officers spoke with the victim who told them he was surrounded by several people on bicycles when a brief physical altercation ensued that resulted in him being struck in the face with a clenched fist by one of the riders.
Police say the victim refused medical treatment on scene and he was taken to a local hospital by one of his co-workers.
Ballo, who is now out of the hospital, tells NBC10 Boston that he's still just trying to understand why this happened.
"It's violence. I don't know what I can say. Because I don't say nothing to that person. I don't say nothing. It's none of my business. He fighting with another lady, it's not me," he said.
Boston police are asking for the public's help as they try to identify the suspects involved in the assault.
Anyone with information relative to this investigation or anyone who may have captured images or video of the incident is strongly urged to contact detectives at 617-343-4683. The investigation is ongoing.
