‘Just doing job,’ says hero officer
THE CITY’S top cop said the officer who took down a madman hellbent on terror could not be more humble.
Officer Ryan Nash, along with fellow cops John Hasiotis, Michael Welsome and Kevin McGinn, were credited Wednesday with apprehending Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old accused of killing eight people and injuring 13 others before being shot and wounded byNash.
“In the typical fashion of an NYPD cop, he thinks what he did was not an act of heroism,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said. “He thinks it’s why he joined the Police Department.”
O’Neill spoke with Nash at Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated for ringing in his ears after the Tuesday clash with a terrorist.
In a brief statement delivered at a Suffolk County police station, Nash, 28, thanked the public, family and friends for their support.
“I appreciate the public recognition of the actions of myself and my fellow officers yesterday,” he said.
“Although I feel that we were just doing our job, like thousands of officers do every day, I understand the importance of yesterday’s events and the role we played.”
He declined further comment because of the pending criminal case against Saipov.
After Saipov crashed his rent- ed Home Depot truck into a school bus, he emerged shouting “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God Is great” — and waving guns that were later found to be a pellet gun and a paintball gun.
Nash, on the force five years, fired nine times after Saipov ignored commands to surrender, hitting him once in the abdomen.
Hasiotis, Nash’s partner, secured the scene and identified important witnesses, police union head Patrick Lynch said. Welsome, 32, and McGinn, 24, secured Saipov’s weapons, he said.
“While we mourn the terrible loss of life and the injuries to innocent people, we are proud of, and grateful for, the quick action of a team of police officers who responded to cries for help and took charge of a chaotic and dangerous situation,” said Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
O’Neill said Nash and Hasiotis, 38, were at Stuyvesant High School responding to a report of a suicidal teen when someone came in and said there was a vehicle accident outside.
“Once they got outside they were confronted and they took proper action,” O’Neill said. “So all New Yorkers should be thankful to Ryan and his partner. They showed great courage.”
Mayor de Blasio also heaped on praise.
“In that situation, you don’t know if the shooter has multiple weapons, has a bomb on him,” de Blasio said. “Literally, dozens of more lives could have been in danger. Ryan stopped that threat immediately.”