Police arrest motorcyclist who fled from officers

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Caught on camera: a motorcyclist fleeing from police wipes out on his bike then gets up and hops on another bike before speeding off. The rider says he didn't know the police were trying to pull him over, officers say he was being reckless.

The rider was with a large group of bikers, and the action was captured on camera by another driver in the same group.

Watch as a Phoenix Police officer runs up to a motorcyclist and tries to take him into custody, the driver speeds forward, loses control, and crashes the bike. But it doesn't end there, he ditches his bike, runs away, and speeds off on another motorcycle.

"I didn't know what was going on, I just knew somebody grabbed me, when they grabbed me my wrist hit the throttle, and my bike just started taking off," said Khiry Shabazz.

Shabazz says he didn't know that the person who grabbed his wrist was a police officer.

"I just ran, I just ran because I was so scared, if that was a cop I didn't think he was allowed to do that, and secondly I didn't do anything to get stopped in the first place," said Shabazz.

But Phoenix Police have a different version of what happened; the incident began before the start of the video when officers tried to pull Shabazz over for speeding and reckless driving, but Shabazz failed to stop and kept going.

"We had a pursuit, and he wasn't stopping for the officer who was in a fully marked vehicle and in full uniform, he doesn't look back, in this case, to see who was behind him because he knew who was behind him," said Sgt. Trent Crump.

"I wasn't endangering anybody's life for him to get out of his car and approach me," said Shabazz.

"This is a case of failing to stop for law enforcement, you're not going to act lawless," said Crump.

Shabazz was arrested shortly after and charged with unlawful flight, resisting arrest, and failing to stay at the scene of an accident. His boss also fired him from his job. The other motorcycle driver was also arrested and charged with hindering prosecution and unlawful flight.

No one was injured in the whole ordeal.