The Nation - News from Dec. 21, 1986

A black man looking for help after a friend’s car broke down was killed by a car as he and two friends fled from white youths chasing them with sticks and baseball bats in New York City. Members of the gang shouted racial epithets as they chased Michael Griffith, 22, who tried to escape by running across a Queens freeway and was killed by a passing motorist, who was not held. The incident was deplored by Mayor Edward I. Koch, who offered a $10,000 city reward for information leading to the arrest of the white youths. “Whatever we must do to apprehend these people, we will do,” Koch said. “It is a horror.”