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A partner at a private equity firm in London has vehemently denied being the jogger who pushed a woman in front of a bus.
Eric Bellquist was arrested on suspicion of the shocking act – caught on CCTV footage – which took place back in May but has only come to light after police released footage of the incident.
The American investment banker’s lawyers state that Bellquist has “irrefutable proof” he was in the US at the time of the incident.
The Metropolitan police said on Thursday that they had arrested a man in Chelsea on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. He was later released on bail.
Bellquist’s lawyers, Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said: “This statement is issued in relation to our client Mr Eric Bellquist, who was arrested yesterday in relation to an assault that took place between a male jogger and a female pedestrian on 5 May 2017 on Putney Bridge, London.
“Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident. Consequently, we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.”
The CCTV footage showed a man dressed in a light grey T-shirt and blue shorts apparently barging into the 33-year-old woman, knocking her into the road on the east side of Putney Bridge and forcing a bus to swerve to avoid her.
the bus stopped and passengers tended to the woman, who sustained minor injuries, after the incident at about 7.40am on 5 May.
Police said the jogger ran back the other way across the bridge about 15 minutes later and the victim tried to speak to him, but “he did not acknowledge her”.
“This is clearly an individual who, upon seeing someone in his path, veers towards them and not only does he barrel them over, but he continues to run down the road without even looking back to make sure they’re OK,” Prof Craig Jackson, the head of psychology at Birmingham City University, told Good Morning Britain
“That to me is quite horrifying behaviour and I think what we’re looking at here is the pedestrian equivalent of road rage. It’s very, very worrying … it could have been murder or manslaughter.”
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