Deadly truck terror attack

People run down on New York bike path — 8 dead, 11 hurt

NEW YORK — A driver plowed a pickup truck down a crowded bike path along the Hudson River in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 before being shot by a police officer in what officials are calling the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since Sept. 11.

The rampage ended when the motorist — whom the police identified as Sayfullo Saipov, 29 — smashed into a school bus, jumped out of his truck and ran up and down the highway waving a pellet gun and paintball gun and shouting, “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” before he was shot in the abdomen by the officer. He remained in critical condition Tuesday night.

Uber has confirmed that the Sai-

pov was one of its drivers.

The ride-hailing service released a statement Tuesday night saying Saipov passed a background check to become an Uber driver and had been actively driving on the platform for more than six months. Saipov has since been banned from the Uber app.

The company says it has reached out to law enforcement to provide its full assistance and is “aggressively and quickly reviewing” the suspect’s history with Uber.

Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the incident a terrorist attack and federal law enforcement authorities were leading the investigation. Investigators discovered handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck that indicated allegiance to the Islamic State, two law enforcement officials said. But investigators had not uncovered evidence of any direct or enabling ties between Saipov and the Islamic State and were treating the episode as a case of an “inspired” attacker, two counterterrorism officials said.

De Blasio said at a news conference, “Based on information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians.”

Five of the people killed were Argentine tourists who traveled to New York for a 30-year high school reunion celebration, said a senior official in Santa Fe province, where they were from. The Argentine authorities said they were Hernán Mendoza, Diego Angelini, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi. Martín Ludovico Marro, a sixth member of the group, was wounded. Belgian officials said one of those killed and three of the injured were from Belgium.

Saipov came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010, and had a green card that allowed permanent legal residence. He had apparently lived in Paterson, N.J., and Tampa, Fla. An official said he rented the truck from a Home Depot in New Jersey.

The truck came crashing to a stop near Stuyvesant High School. Sirus Minovi, 14, a freshman there who was hanging out with friends, said people scattered.

“We heard people screaming, ‘gun’ ‘shooter’ and ‘run away,’ ” Sirus said. “We thought it was a Halloween prank.”

He realized it was not a joke when he saw the man staggering through the intersection, waving guns and screaming words he could not make out. A passerby approached the attacker, apparently trying to calm him, Sirus said, until the man realized the attacker had a gun. The man “put his hands up and was backing away,” Sirus said.

Almost immediately, as investigators began to look into Saipov’s history, it became clear that he had been on the radar of federal authorities. Three officials said he had come to the federal authorities’ attention as a result of an unrelated investigation, but it was not clear whether that was because he was a friend, an associate or a family member of someone under scrutiny or because he himself had been the focus of an investigation.

Over the last two years, a terrorism investigation by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the New York Police Department and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn resulted in charges against five men from Uzbekistan and one from Kazakhstan for providing material support to the Islamic State. Several of the men have pleaded guilty. It is unclear whether Saipov was connected with that investigation.

Martin Feely, a spokesman for the New York FBI office, declined to comment on whether Saipov was known to the bureau. The Associated Press contributed to

this report.

James Keivom / New York Daily News Responders and New York police are on the scene where a driver ended his deadly pickup truck rampage by ramming into a school bus after mowing down bicyclists and pedestrians on a bike path along the Hudson River.

Todd Heisler / New York Times A police officer talks to bystanders after a truck driver ran down people, killing eight and injuring 11 before police shot and critically wounded him.

Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press Authorities investigate the scene near a covered body on a bike path after a driver ran onto the path and mowed people down.

James Keivom / New York Daily News This is the rented pickup truck the driver used to run people down in a deadly rampage before smashing into a school bus.

Sayfullo Saipov, 29, suspect in the deadly truck terror attack, was in critical condition.