Eight people are dead and 11 have been injured after a truck mounted a bicycle path in lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, mowing down cyclists and runners while shouting 'Allahu Akbar'. The 29-year-old driver, named by insiders as Sayfullo Saipov (pictured left, seen center after incident), mounted the bicycle path at Houston Street at 3.05pm and drove 17 blocks downtown, knocking down victims before coming to a stop at Chambers Street where he eventually crashed his truck into a school bus. After coming to a stop in his rented Home Depot truck (bottom-right), the terrorist then emerged, waving a paintball gun in one hand and a pellet gun in the other. He was shot in the stomach by an on-duty NYPD officer who was at the scene and the suspect is now in hospital under police supervision. At a press conference at Police Plaza later, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio condemned the attack as a 'cowardly act of terror'. Saipov was reported to be an Uzbekistan native who had lived in the US for seven years. He was truck drver and a 'friendly' Uber driver. And although he was reportedly found with a Florida ID when arrested, he had lived most recently in New Jersey. and ran two trucking companies located in Ohio. Notes indicating loyalty to ISIS were near his truck.
Saipov had earned a green card, according to a law enforcement official who spoke under the condition of anonymity. He arrived in the United States in 2010 in Ohio. At some point, Mr. Saipov made his way to Fort Myers, Fla., where he met a fellow Uzbek immigrant, Kobiljon Matkarov. Mr. Saipov was working as a truck driver at the time.
Neighbors were located in Tampa, Florida who say Saipov lived with a young family in a modest apartment complex with a woman and two or three children, as well as an older woman took to be Saipov’s or the woman’s mother. The family told Eagan they used to live in New York and Ohio before moving to Florida. But the neighbors said the family moved out over the summer. They said Saipov told her they were moving to New Jersey because Saipov's job got transferred.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said “there is no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme.” One reason these "lone wolf" vehicle attacks have become so popular is that they're hard to predict and prevent. They aren't designed to cripple a country — just terrorize the populace. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp].
Almost immediately, as investigators began to look into Mr. Saipov’s history, it became clear that he had been on the radar of federal authorities. Three officials said he had come to the federal authorities’ attention as a result of an unrelated investigation, but it was not clear whether that was because he was a friend, an associate or a family member of someone under scrutiny or because he himself had been the focus of an investigation. Martin Feely, a spokesman for the New York F.B.I. office, declined to comment on whether Mr. Saipov was known to the bureau. Saipov became influenced by the Islamic State and its violent tactics after arriving in this country from Uzbekistan, officials said.
Mr. Saipov, a slim, bearded man, was seen in videos running through traffic after the attack with a paintball gun in one hand and a pellet gun in the other. Six people died at the scene and two others died at a hospital, officials said. The authorities credited the officer who shot him with saving lives.
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| NYPD officer Ryan Nash (above), 28, is being credited with stopping the attack from becoming worse by shooting Saipov. Nash joined the NYPD in July 2012 and is a Long Island resident, police sources told the Daily News. He was commended by NYPD Commissioner James O'Neil for his efforts. Officer Nash is assigned to Lower Manhattan's 1st Precinct and arrived to the scene after responding to a call of a nonviolent, emotionally disturbed person outside Stuyvesant High School, the New York Daily News reported. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5037279/Truck-driver-terror-attack-Uzbek-national-aged-29.html#ixzz4xA3FQrPi Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook “He was Johnny-on-the-spot and he takes the guy down,” a city official said. |
Mr. Saipov wove a deadly path on a stretch usually bustling with commuters, runners and cyclists, drawn by the downtown offices nearby or the shimmering river.
He turned onto the bike path alongside the West Side Highway at Houston Street just after 3 p.m. and sped south, striking numerous pedestrians and cyclists, many of them in the back, the authorities said. People scattered and dived to the asphalt.
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| The truck came to a stop by crashing into a school bus after plowing through others on the bike path. The two adults and two children inside the bus were injured. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5037279/Truck-driver-terror-attack-Uzbek-national-aged-29.html#ixzz4xA3ra19N Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |