Police Find Car Hit-and-Run Driver Used to Kill Cyclist in Williamsburg

The NYPD has located the late-model Chevy Camaro a hit-and-run driver used to strike and kill Matthew von Ohlen as he biked down Grand Street in Williamsburg early Saturday night.

An NYPD spokesperson, Detective Kellyann Ort, could not say where or when the vehicle was found or what condition it was in. The driver, who investigators believe intentionally struck von Ohlen twice before dragging him more than twenty feet, is still at large.

Von Ohlen, 35, was a co-founder of BikeStock, and is the twelfth cyclist to be killed on New York City streets in 2016. On Tuesday night his friends gathered to celebrate his life and assemble a “ghost bike” for him. “The one thing we need to be really aware of is road rage between cars and bicyclists,” one of von Ohlen’s friends told Gothamist. “It sounds to me like the police don’t realize that cars can kill people.”

Since von Ohlen was killed, the NYPD has targeted cyclists for increased enforcement. Police in the 90th Precinct, where von Ohlen was struck handed out summonses and pamphlets to cyclists the day after the crash, and yesterday officers gave tickets to cyclists riding on the Manhattan Bridge for not having bells. 

@Shmuli @BrooklynSpoke sorry for the bad pic, but this is so you can see. doubt the officer walked up lol. pic.twitter.com/UTnSun3564

— Martin Pons (@pons00) July 6, 2016

We’ll update as more information on the police investigation becomes available.