Terror suspect followed ISIS, plotted attack for weeks
UZBEK IMMIGRANT FOLLOWED INSTRUCTIONS ‘ALMOST EXACTLY TO A T’
The Uzbek immigrant accused of mowing people down along a Manhattan bike path went on the deadly rental-truck rampage “in the name of ISIS” and planned it for weeks, closely following the extremist group’s online instructions.
Authorities said the driver of the rented Home Depot truck, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, watched videos from the Islamic State group on his cellphone and picked Halloween for the attack because he knew more people would be out on the streets.
Afterward, as he lay wounded in the hospital, he asked to display the flag of ISIS, also known as ISIL, in his room and “stated that he felt good about what he had done,” prosecutors said in court papers.
He was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and committing violence and destruction of motor vehicles.
Saipov left behind knives and a note, handwritten in Arabic, that included Islamic religious references and said ISIS “will endure,” FBI agent Amber Tyree said in court papers.
Questioned in his hospital bed, Saipov said he had been inspired by ISIS videos and began plotting an attack about a year ago, deciding to use a truck about two months ago, Tyree said. Saipov even rented a truck on Oct. 22 to practice making turns, Tyree said.
John Miller, deputy New York police commissioner for intelligence, said Saipov “appears to have followed, almost exactly to a T, the instructions that ISIS has put out.”
In the past few years, the Islamic State has exhorted followers online to use vehicles, knives or other close-at-hand means of killing people in their home countries. England, France and Germany have all seen deadly vehicle attacks since mid-2016.
A November 2016 issue of the group’s online magazine detailed features that an attack truck or van should have, suggested renting such a vehicle and recommended targeting crowded streets and outdoor gatherings, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a militantmonitoring agency.
In Tuesday’s attack, Saipov drove his speeding truck for more than a kilometre along a bike path, running down cyclists and pedestrians, then crashed into a school bus, authorities said. He was shot in the abdomen after he jumped out of the vehicle brandishing two air guns, one in each hand, and yelling “God is great!” in Arabic, they said.
In addition to the eight people killed, 12 people were injured.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump — who called Saipov an animal — slammed the Diversity Visa Lottery Program that the suspect used to come to the U.S. in 2010. Trump called on Congress to eliminate it, saying, “We have to get much tougher, much smarter and less politically correct.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saipov appeared to have acted alone after becoming radicalized while in the U.S. Assailants in a number of other recent extremist attacks around the world were found to have been “lone wolves” — inspired but not actually directed by the Islamic State. In some cases, they never even made contact with the group.
The slight, bearded Saipov is a legal, permanent U.S. resident. He lived in Ohio and Florida before moving to New Jersey around June, authorities said.
Birth records show he and his wife had two daughters in Ohio, and a neighbour in New Jersey said they recently had a baby boy.
Saipov was a commercial truck driver in Ohio. More recently, he was an Uber driver.
In Ohio, Saipov was an argumentative young man whose career was falling apart and who was “not happy with his life,” said Mirrakhmat Muminov, a fellow truck driver from heavily Muslim Uzbekistan.
Saipov lost his insurance on his truck after his rates shot up because of a few traffic tickets, and companies stopped hiring him, said Muminov, 38, of Stow, Ohio.
Muminov said he heard from Saipov’s friends that his truck engine blew a few months ago in New Jersey.
Muminov said Saipov would get into arguments with friends and family, tangling over even small things, such as going to a picnic with the Uzbek community.
“He had the habit of disagreeing with everybody,” Muminov said.
On the morning after the bloodshed, city leaders vowed New York would not be intimidated. They also said Sunday’s New York City Marathon, with 50,000 participants and some two million spectators anticipated, would go on as scheduled.
“We will not be cowed. We will not be thrown off by anything,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.