TERROR O RETURNS TO NYC
Cry of ‘Allahu akbar’ as truck driver kills eight in shadow of WTC
Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov (right) brandishes what turned out to be fake guns yesterday after killing eight people and injuring many others by careening down a bike path near Ground Zero in this rented truck.
A terrorist in a rental truck sped nearly a mile down a popular bicycle path in lower Manhattan on Tuesday — killing eight people in the shadow of the World Trade Center and then shouting, “Allahu akbar!”
“This was an act of terror,” Mayor de Blasio declared at an evening press conference. “A particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at innocent people going about their lives.”
Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old immigrant from Uzbekistan, was shot by a cop after getting out of the truck at Chambers and West streets with two realistic-looking guns while screaming “Allahu ak
bar!” — Arabic for God is great, according to police sources.
Authorities found notes written in Arabic pledging loyalty to ISIS in the truck after Saipov was apprehended, the sources said.
The New York Times reported Tuesday night that Saipov had previously been on the radar of law enforcement as a result of an unrelated investigation.
It wasn’t clear if Saipov was the main target of that probe or just an associate of another figure being investigated, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources.
Saipov’s bloody 17-block trail of terror began at 3:05 p.m., when he turned onto the bike path at West Houston Street in a Home Depot flatbed pickup truck that he had rented in Passaic, NJ, police sources said.
The killer, who was carrying a Florida ID, plowed the vehicle into nearly two dozen cyclists and pedestrians as he sped south on the typically serene path along the Hudson River.
“The Home Depot truck starting running people over,” said a witness, Nelson Arroyo, 58. “I heard a boom, boom, a crushing noise from the bikes. People were sitting down crying. I saw two areas of blood.”
Saipov collided with a school bus at Chambers Street, injuring two adults and two children inside.
He then got out with the pellet and paintball guns, sending panicked bystanders fleeing through the streets, sources said.
“He was running around Chambers and somebody started to chase him,” said a 14-year-old student at nearby Stuyvesant HS, which was just letting out for the day. “Everybody starts running.”
Tom Gay, a school photographer, said he was walking near West and Warren streets when a woman came barreling around the corner shouting, “He has a gun! He has a gun!”
Meanwhile, a cop giving chase, identified as Officer Ryan Nash, 28, fired at least five shots at Saipov, who fell, raising a gun in the air until Nash kicked it out of his hand.
“The uniformed police officer, assigned to the First Precinct, confronted the subject and shot him in the abdomen,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said, adding the attacker “was wounded and transported to a local hospital.”
Meanwhile, bodies covered in white sheets were left scattered on the path amid the wreckage of their bicycles, which included Citi Bikes.
Buildings in the area were put on lockdown, and part of the FDR
Drive was shut down as first responders rushed some victims to Bellevue Hospital.
In addition to the eight dead, at least 11 others, including three children, were injured.
Six men were pronounced dead at the scene, while another man and woman died at the hospital, police said.
One of those who was killed was a Belgian national, according to Didier Reynders, a Belgian politician.
“I am deeply saddened to announce a Belgian victim in Manhattan — I express my condolences to the family and friends,” Reynders tweeted.
At least five of the others who died were from Argentina.
Three victims remained in critical condition Tuesday evening, as did the killer, who was undergoing surgery.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those New Yorkers who we lost today. It reminds us all how precious life is,” Gov. Cuomo said.
“They left the house this morning. They were enjoying the beautiful West Side of Manhattan on a beautiful fall day and they are not going to be returning home. And that shock and that pain is going to be very real.”
Chilling NYPD audio recorded after the slaughter includes shaken cops describing the sight of the “mass-casualty situation’’ before them.
“There’s multiple people on the ground, Central. We need buses all the way up to Houston [Street], Central,’’ one officer says urgently, according to a tape obtained by CBS.
“I’ve got four or five people on the ground.’’
Another cop says, “We got multiple casualties. This is a mass-casualty situation here.’’
The NYPD and FBI have opened a terror investigation, and are looking for computers and phones belonging to Saipov, whose previous record includes only traffic violations.
Police were also executing search warrants in New Jersey, Ohio and Tampa, Fla. — all locations where Saipov has lived since arriving in the United States in 2010, according to records and police sources.
Cuomo described the disturbing act as a lone-wolf attack, which is similar to others that have been perpetrated by terrorists using vehicles to mow down victims.
“The new terrorist tactic, which they have called for publicly, are these lone wolves who commit an act of terror,” the governor said.
“But at this point, there’s no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme, but the actions of one individual who meant to cause pain and harm and probably death, and the resulting terror, and that was the purpose.”
Despite the carnage, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, which draws thousands of revelers every year, still went on.
“We know that this action was intended to break our spirit but we also know New Yorkers are strong, New Yorkers are resilient,” de Blasio said.
“And our spirit will never be moved by an act of violence, an act meant to intimidate us.”