Truck driver deserves death, says Trump
NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump says the Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people when he drove a truck down a New York bike path should get the death penalty.
The suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, told investigators he had been inspired by watching Islamic State videos and had begun planning Tuesday’s attack a year ago.
He said “he felt good about what he had done” and asked for permission to display the Islamic State flag in his hospital room.
“NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang IS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. Should get death penalty!” Trump tweeted late on Wednesday.
Saipov faces two charges, one of which carries the death penalty if the government chooses to seek it, Manhattan Acting US Attorney Joon Kim says.
The charges are one count of violence and destruction of motor vehicles causing the deaths of eight people and one count of providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation, Islamic State. The maximum penalty for the first is death; the maximum for the second is life in prison.
The charge sheet said Saipov had waived his rights to have an attorney present when he agreed to speak to investigators from his hospital bed in Manhattan, where he was being treated after being shot by a police officer.
It said he was particularly motivated by a video where the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, exhorted Muslims in the US and elsewhere to support the group’s cause.
Investigators found thousands of IS-related propaganda images and videos on Saipov’s cellphone, including clips showing IS’s prisoners being beheaded, run over by a tank and shot in the face.
The FBI said it had located another Uzbek man, Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, 32, wanted for questioning as a person of interest in the attack.
Five Argentine tourists, a Belgian and two Americans were killed in Tuesday’s attack. – Reuters