Police searching for man accused of assaulting 3 people posting racial injustice posters in Maryland

BETHESDA, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - A reported attack on a popular bike trail in Montgomery County was caught on tape earlier this week. 

The Maryland National Capital Park Police are hoping that images captured from one of the victim’s cellphone video will help them identify the cyclist they said allegedly assaulted him and two other young people on the trail near McCarthur Boulevard around 12:45 p.m. Monday. 

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The young man who did not want to be identified told FOX 5’s Ayesha Khan that he and two of his friends were walking along the busy trail in an affluent part of Bethesda, hanging up flyers in support of local George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter. 

That’s when he said, a cyclist confronted them.

“It was about right here where he shoved his bike into me and there is the indentation of where you can see I was,” the victim described as he pointed to the area near the Dalecarlia Tunnel.

The young man said that the cyclist allegedly did not like what they were doing and not only assaulted them physically but verbally too.
 
“Screaming at us saying we are ‘inciting’ riots and calling us ‘deviants’ and then on his final way through he tried to punch me,” he said.

Now investigators have made their own poster with images of the cyclist and have been sharing them on their twitter account. 
 
“The fact that he felt justified in doing that, I think is pretty telling,” said the young victim.

The victims said that a nearby witness on a bike saw the whole incident happen and immediately contacted the authorities. 
 
Meanwhile, our FOX 5 crew also captured officers on the trail removing posters on Wednesday. We have inquired about the poster policy in the park and are awaiting answers.