Search Intensifies, Reward Offered for Driver That Hit Motorcyclist

CALVERTON, NY — The search is heating up for the driver who hit a motorcyclist in Calverton last month and fled the scene, police said.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Riverhead Town Police detectives are seeking the public’s help to identify the unknown vehicle that hit the Harley-Davidson motorcycle operated by Lee Lopez, who was traveling eastbound on Route 25A, near the intersection with Route 25 in Calverton, when he was hit by an unknown vehicle that fled the scene on October 21 at approximately 11:30 p.m., police said.

Lopez suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The vehicle would have sustained damage to its front end, police said.

Detectives are asking anyone with information on the vehicle or driver of the vehicle to call Riverhead Town Police at 631-727-4500 ext. 328.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

All calls will be kept confidential.

When the crash first took place, Shawn Lopez, Lee's father, turned to social media for help to find the driver who allegedly struck his son and dragged him for as much as 200 feet and then fled the scene, leaving the young man for dead, he said.

His son, he said, was struck near the haunted house attraction.

Thankfully, he said, his son was recovering at Stony Brook University Hospital.

"Lee is banged up but no broken bones but a concussion and in extreme pain. Please share this to as many people as you can and report to Riverhead police. I just heard that a police officer said Lee was not only hit but dragged 200 feet. I am in a rage of fury within myself. God help this gutless savage! Please keep your ears and eyes open so we can find this animal," he wrote.

An update to Lopez' original post said that an eyewitness saw the incident. "The vehicle that hit Lee was traveling east and hit the back of the bike. The bike and Lee went under the vehicle. This means it was a larger SUV type vehicle that has enough clearance to still drive and accelerate with the bike underneath it. Sadly my son may have been underneath somehow. Because of the huge amount of sparks this witness was distracted but watched it for the first 100 yards as it passed him. Then it went another 100 yards with the bike and Lee still attached. Lee came loose first, then the bike."

And so, Lopez said, the search is on for a small SUV that has damage on the undercarriage. Without the help of people on the scene, his son "would not be with us," Lopez wrote. His son, he wrote, was "left for dead in the center of the road without lights and foggy conditions."

His son, Lopez said, suffered fractures, facial cuts, sore muscle and a possible tear in his left shoulder. "He is in great spirits, laughing, joking with friends."

But Lopez said he wants justice for the person who left his son for dead.

"We really want this person to pay dearly for their actions. Than we can have closure and forgive," Lopez said.

As for his son, who, he said, is "comfortable," recover, Lopez wrote, "Lee is safe and that is all that matters. I'm no longer mad nor angry but content and satisfied that all will be okay but not without the grace of God. So tonight I pray and praise God for thanks and forgiveness. Dear Lord, I love you and need you, please come into my life and bless me, my family and friends and now enemies. I thank you, Lord, for your son Jesus Christ and thank you for protecting our son Lee. I say this in Jesus name, Amen."