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Police Investigate After Bicyclist Attacked By Group Of Teens

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- An evening bike ride for a cyclist turned violent after he was attacked by a group of teenagers--and it's caught on camera.

Rochelle Ritchie has more.

The man was wearing a helmet with one additional feature his attackers did not know about--a camera positioned on top. Now that video is in the hands of Baltimore City Police, who are combing through the images.

It was a dark Saturday evening when Mike Bowman, 32, peddled his way down Guilford Avenue toward Hampden, where he was meeting friends.

"There's a bunch of kids that hang there at Lanvale. Before I knew it, there's a guy chasing me. A bottle goes past my head," Bowman said.

In the video, you can see a teenager in a white T-shirt chasing Bowman, as he turned and looked behind him. As he crossed the intersection, he was intercepted by several teens on bikes, who knocked him to the ground.

The camera caught the teenagers' violent actions.

"I go down. I just tuck and start taking hits. It was coming from all angles," he said.

He screamed for help to alert neighbors. They rushed to his aid as the teens ran off.

"I owe them a beer. They showed up real quick to make sure everything was alright," he said.

He was left with a swollen thumb but overall is OK.

He says having the camera on top of the helmet was a good idea in order to catch the suspects, but also may have kept him from having serious injuries.

"You can hear in the video they're laughing. Violence should never be funny," Bowman said.

He says he would like the teens to get caught, but is more concerned about cyclists being safe as the weather warms up.

"Be safe. Try not to take risky routes," he said.

Despite the violent attack, the teens didn't steal anything from him.

Bowman says he decided to add the camera to his helmet after a friend was hit by a driver who did not stop.

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