Pregnant ‘Citi Bike Karen’ caught in bike fight on viral video now getting ‘threats’: lawyer

The New York City hospital worker caught on viral video quarreling with a group of young Black men over a Citi Bike is now receiving threats to her and her family, the woman’s lawyer said Friday.

Sarah Comrie, a physician’s assistant at Bellevue Hospital, became a target of internet ire earlier this week when footage of her arguing over one of the popular bike rentals was shared over and over again on social media.

The video shows Comrie, who’s white and six months pregnant, shouting “Help! Help me! Please help me!” as she and a Black man wrangle over who paid for the Citi Bike.

“This is not your bike,” the man says. “This is my bike on my account, please move.”

“Get off me,” she replies.

Comrie can then be seen grabbing the man’s cell phone, which he yanks back from her. She then says to him: “You’re hurting my fetus.”

Since the video was posted last Saturday, Comrie has weathered an onslaught of criticism and vitriol, with some labeling her a “Karen,” a reference to white women putting Black men in danger over relatively trivial disagreements.

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump posted on social media that Comrie “tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat,” but appears to have taken the post down.

But Comrie’s attorney Justin Marino said there is much more to the story than what the video depicts.

“I am trying to stop the threats to her and her family by clearing her name and letting people know what actually occurred,” Marino said.

He said Comrie has two main goals at this point: “One, she wants her job and, two, she wants to walk the streets safely.”

Aside from the threats she’s received, Marino also put Bellevue Hospital and the city’s Health + Hospitals network, which oversees Bellevue, on notice after it announced Tuesday that Comrie had been placed on leave.

“Companies are permitted to do investigations when they see a concern,” he said. “I will have an issue with them if, and when, they move to terminate her.”

A spokesperson from Health + Hospitals declined to address Marino’s specific concerns, but a statement posted by the agency on Twitter earlier this week called the video of Comrie “disturbing.”

“The provider is currently out on leave and will remain on leave pending a review,” the H+H statement says. “As a health system, we are committed to providing an environment for our patients and staff that is free from discrimination of any kind.”

Marino is also contending that he and his client have receipts to prove that she did, in fact, pay for the Citi Bike in question.

Marino accused other news outlets of “outrageously” portraying his client as a racist “who was ‘trying to steal a CitiBike from a young Black man.’”

Marino contends that Comrie paid with the CitiBike app on her phone and then removed it from the docking station.

“During this time a group of about five individuals approached her, saying that the bike was theirs. One or more individuals in that group physically pushed her bike (with her on it) back into the docking station, causing it to re-lock,” Marino wrote. “One of the individuals then covered the QR code on the bike (which is visible in the video), preventing her from paying for it again so she could leave.”

Bob Roe, Comrie’s uncle, set up a GoFundMe page for his niece, which has so far raised more than $43,000.

Roe contends that Comrie is far from a racist and notes that she “holds racial justice and equity dear, and has dedicated her life to serving NYC’s most challenged individuals.”

“My niece, Sarah Comrie, a Physicians Assistant at Bellevue, became embroiled in a much-publicized incident with a Citibike that unfairly painted her as a racist ‘Karen,’” he wrote. “The facts have since proven this is a lie, but the damage has been done.”