Cyclist pulls driver from car after being struck at intersection in Koreatown

KOREATOWN, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A cyclist who was struck by a car at an intersection in Koreatown Thursday evening pulled the driver out of the vehicle and battered him, authorities said.

The incident began about 10:30 p.m. at 6th Street and Hobart Boulevard, where some 50 to 60 cyclists blocked an intersection as a traffic light changed, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said.

"They came up on the light, it was green, so as they were going through basically it turns red," witness Brandon Pak said. The bicyclists proceeded, not allowing cars to pass.

A cyclist was hit as a driver tried to maneuver his vehicle through the crowded intersection, according to the LAPD.

"One of the guys was hanging onto the car door," Pak said, "and all of a sudden (the motorist) just started to shake him off by accelerating really fast, stopping, accelerating really fast. He gunned it and he hit his friend and pretty much ran over his leg it looked like."

The cyclist committed a battery after he entered the car and pulled the driver out, police said.

Cellphone video appears to show a man lying on his stomach in the street, pinned down by another man as a crowd of onlookers surrounds them.

Officers responded to the scene and detained the cyclist, who was later released. The driver, who was not considered to be at fault, was briefly detained, police said. No one involved chose to press charges.

The cyclist went to a hospital for treatment of an abrasion to his elbow.

"It's just road rage to me, really," Pak said. "You see a big group of bikers ... you let them go through. There's no point in trying to test them."