NY attack prompts call for tougher vetting
Driver who mowed down eight in New York identified as Uzbek immigrant
With the suspect in the deadly New York truck rampage identified as an Uzbek man, US President Donald Trump has called for tighter, meritbased screening of immigrants. Eight people, five of them old friends from Argentina on a school reunion, were killed when the suspect drove down a bicycles-only track.
New York: The man accused of killing eight people by racing a pickup truck down a New York City bike path on Tuesday may have worked as a driver and lived in New Jersey after emigrating from Uzbekistan seven years ago, according to authorities and media reports.
Few other details about the 29-year-old suspect have emerged since the Tuesday afternoon vehicle rampage in lower Manhattan, blocks from the site of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks that destroyed the landmark World Trade Center Twin Towers.
Police have declined to identify the man but a source familiar with the investigation identified him as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov and said he is not a US citizen. His immigration status was not immediately clear.
Saipov was shot by a police officer while attempting to flee minutes after the attack and was whisked away to hospital, where he was recovering from an abdominal wound. He was brandishing imitation firearms while exiting the truck.
With authorities saying they believe the attack was a “terrorist event”, the lack of disclosure may reflect the nature of the investigation, which is still in its earliest stage.
Five of the eight killed were Argentine nationals, part of a group visiting New York from the city of Rosario for a school reunion, the foreign ministry in Buenos Aires said.
Brussels said a Belgian woman on a trip with her mother and sister was also killed.
Eleven people, including an Argentine and three Belgians, were also wounded.
According to CNN and other media outlets, the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” after leaping from his truck, which had crashed into a school bus as he sped away from the carnage.
He also left behind a note claiming he carried out the deadly assault in the name of the Islamic State militant group.
The attacker struck in TriBeCa, one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the city. Heavily armed police fanned out across the city of 8.5 million, home to Wall Street, Broadway and one of the biggest tourist draws in the United States.
Federal officials had become aware of Saipov while conducting an unrelated investigation, the New York Times reported, citing three unidentified officials. The Times offered no further details about the nature of the investigation, when it was conducted, or its outcome.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declined to comment on that report when asked by reporters at a news conference.
“It is too early to give you a definitive answer,” he said.
Saipov, born in February 1988, moved to the United States seven years ago from Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country that was once part of the Soviet Union. He appears to have lived in Ohio, Florida and New Jersey since then.
An Uzbek immigrant who met Saipov in Florida several years ago told the Times that Saipov worked as a truck driver there but began driving for Uber when he moved to New Jersey.
“He was a very good person when I knew him,” Kobiljon Matkarov told the newspaper. “He liked the US. He seemed very lucky and all the time he was happy and talking like everything is OK. He did not seem like a terrorist, but I did not know him from the inside.”
Saipov was an Uber driver after passing the background check, but has since been banned from the Uber app, a spokesman with the ride-sharing company said.
“We are aggressively and quickly reviewing this partner’s history with Uber, and at this time we have not identified any related concerning safety reports,” the company said, adding that it has been in contact with the FBI.
The Times, citing sources, reported that Saipov had been living in Paterson, New Jersey, about 40km northwest of the scene of the attack.
He rented the truck used in the attack from a Home Depot in nearby Passaic, just south of Paterson, it said.
Police cordoned off an area of Paterson, a one-time industrial hub known for its large immigrant population, early yesterday morning. About 25,000 to 30,000 Muslims live in the city, giving it one of the highest concentrations of Muslim people in the New York City area.
Saipov has a history of traffic violations, according to media reports and court records.
In one incident, he was pulled over in central Pennsylvania for pulling a truck trailer that was longer than permitted by law and “operating unsafe equipment”, as well as driving with the wrong operator’s licence, state judicial records show.
Saipov listed both Paterson and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, as his addresses. He paid his fine by mail and did not have to appear in court.
The FBI and New York police urged members of the public to come forward with any Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN.
“And that’s why I’m here marching in the parade, not because I have a great costume.” said Cuomo, who was dressed in a suit and tie. — Reuters information that could assist the investigation.
Tuesday’s attack was the first deadly terrorrelated incident in the US financial and entertainment capital since the al-Qaeda hijackings brought down the Twin Towers, killing more than 2,700 people on 9/11.
Attacks with vehicles – a method recommended by the Islamic State group in 2014 – have left dozens of people dead in various European countries since the middle of last year.
The New York truck attack came 12 months after a pipe bomb exploded in September 2016 in the Chelsea neighbourhood, lightly wounding 31 people. An American of Afghan descent, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, was convicted of terrorism on Oct 16 in relation to that attack.
In May, a US Navy veteran ploughed a car into pedestrians in Times Square, killing an 18-year-old woman and injuring 22 other people in what de Blasio said was not terror-related.
On May 1, 2010 Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad planted a car bomb in Times Square that failed to explode. He was arrested after boarding a flight to the Middle East and sentenced to life behind bars. — Agencies