Uzbek radicalised in US
SUSPECT DROVE A RENTED PICKUP TRUCK DOWN A CYCLE LANE LEAVING EIGHT PEOPLE DEAD THE ATTACKER LEFT A NOTE PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO THE DAESH MILITANT GROUP THE SUSPECT WAS SHOT AND WOUNDED IN THE ABDOMEN AS HE LEFT THE VEHICLE ATTACKER HAD NEVER BEEN THE SUB
The Uzbek immigrant who killed eight people in New York’s worst attack since September 11, 2001 was associated with the Daesh militant group but became radicalised after moving to the United States, it emerged on Wednesday.
The driver, who moved to America in 2010, mowed down pedestrians and cyclists over a mile-long stretch of a bike path on Lower’s Manhattan’s West Side, as children and their parents prepared to celebrate Halloween on Tuesday afternoon.
Police shot the 29-year-old suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, in the abdomen after he crashed into a school bus and exited his pickup truck, brandishing paintball and pellet guns. He remains in custody but is expected to survive the shooting.
“He’s a depraved coward is what he is, and he was associated with Daesh, and he was radicalised domestically,” New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN.
The governor confirmed “a note that referenced Daesh” was found at the scene. US media said it was written in Arabic and pledged allegiance to the militant group. Saipov also reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” (“God is greatest”).
“After he came to the United States is when he started to become informed about Daesh and radical tactics,” Cuomo told CNN.
“We have no evidence yet of associations or a continuing plot or associated plots, and our only evidence to date is that this was an isolated incident that he himself performed.”
Vehicle rammings have been a frequent tactic deployed by Daesh sympathisers in the West, including in Barcelona, London, Stockholm and in Nice, where a Tunisian suicide truck bomber killed 86 people on Bastille Day.
Busy life went on Wednesday, although New Yorkers confessed to feeling unnerved by an attack that brought back memories of 9/11 with a stepped up police presence across the city. The New York Stock Exchange observed a moment of silence. “I am scared,” said Megan Brosterman, a 38-year-old mother dropping off two children at school close to the scene.
“It does bring memories from 9/11. I worked in a building in this same neighbourhood in 9/11. I can’t change my routine because of this,” she said. “Life goes on.”
Saipov reportedly moved to the United States in 2010, living in Florida and Ohio, before moving to Paterson, a former industrial hub in New Jersey about 32 kilometres northeast of New York, where he lived with his wife and two children. He struck in broad daylight in the upscale neighbourhood of TriBeCa, close to schools and just blocks from the memorial to the 9/11 attacks, when Al Qaeda hijackers killed more than 2,700 people in New York and brought down the Twin Towers.
Five of the eight killed were Argentines, part of a group visiting New York for a school reunion, the foreign ministry in Buenos Aires said. A Belgian woman on a trip with her mother and sister was also killed, Brussels said.
One Argentine, a German and three Belgians, were among the at least 11 wounded.
President Donald Trump, facing what appears to be the worst miliant-inspired attack of his less than one year in office, denounced the culprit as “deranged” and announced a stepping-up of his “extreme vetting programme” for foreign travellers. —