Uzbek immigrant defiant despite possible death penalty
NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors brought terrorism charges Wednesday against the Uzbek immigrant accused in the truck rampage that left eight people dead, saying he was spurred to attack by the Islamic State group’s online calls to action and picked Halloween because he knew more people would be out on the streets.
Even as he lay wounded in the hospital from police gunfire, Sayfullo Saipov asked to display the Islamic State group’s flag in his room and said “he felt good about what he had done,” prosecutors said in court papers. Saipov was brought to court in a wheelchair to face the charges, which could bring the death penalty.
Meanwhile, the FBI said it wanted to question a second person from Uzbekistan — 32-year-old Mukhammadzoir Kadirov — and had found him. A law enforcement official said Kadirov may not have a role in the case, but investigators became suspicious when they couldn’t find him, as he was one of Saipov’s few friends. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Saipov nodded his head repeatedly as he was read his rights in a brief court proceeding that he followed through a Russian interpreter.
His court-appointed lawyer, David Patton, said Saipov was in “a significant amount of pain” and asked that he get wound care and a wheelchair or crutches in the federal lockup where he’s being held without bail.
Outside of court, Patton called for fair treatment of his client.
“I hope, given all of the attention in this case and all of the attention that it’s sure to continue to receive, that everyone lets the judicial process play out,” he said. “I promise you that how we treat Mr. Saipov in this judicial process will say a lot more about us than it will say about him.”
Saipov, accused of driving the rented Home Depot pickup truck that barreled down a bike path near the World Trade Center memorial on Tuesday, was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and committing violence and destruction of motor vehicles, resulting in death.
Prosecutors said he had 90 videos and 3,800 photos on one of his two cellphones, many of them ISIS-related pieces of propaganda, including images of prisoners being beheaded, shot or run over by a tank.
Saipov left behind knives and a note, in Arabic and English, that included Islamic religious references and said, “Islamic Supplication. It will endure,” FBI agent Amber Tyree said in court papers. “It will endure” commonly refers to ISIS, Tyree said.
Questioned in his hospital bed, Saipov said he had been inspired by ISIS videos that he watched on his cellphone and began plotting an attack about a year ago, deciding to use a truck about two months ago, Tyree said.
During the last few weeks, Saipov searched the internet for information on Halloween in New York City and for truck rentals, the agent said. Saipov even rented a truck on Oct. 22 to practice making turns, and he initially hoped to get from the bike path across lower Manhattan to hit more pedestrians on the Brooklyn Bridge, Tyree said.
He even considered displaying ISIS flags on the truck during the attack but decided against it because he did not want to draw attention, authorities said.
In the past few years,
the Islamic State has exhorted followers online to use vehicles, knives or other close-at-hand means of killing people in their home countries. England, France and Germany have all seen deadly vehicle attacks since mid-2016.
Carlos Batista, a neighbor of Saipov’s in Paterson, New Jersey, said he had seen the suspect and two friends using the same model of rented truck several times in the past three weeks.
It was not clear whether Saipov had been on authorities’ radar. Miller said Saipov had never been the subject of a criminal investigation but appears to have links to people who have been investigated.
In Tuesday’s attack, Saipov killed five people from Argentina, one from Belgium and two Americans, authorities said. Another 12 people were injured; nine remained hospitalized in serious or critical condition.
The aftermath took a political turn Wednesday when President Donald Trump slammed the visa lottery program that Saipov used to come to the U.S. in 2010. Trump called the program “a Chuck Schumer beauty,” a reference to the Senate’s top Democrat.
The program dates to 1990, when Republican President George H.W. Bush signed it as part of a bipartisan immigration bill. Wednesday, Trump called on Congress to eliminate it, saying, “We have to get much tougher, much smarter and less politically correct.”
Schumer, who represents New York, said in a statement that he has always believed that immigration “is good for America,” and he accused the president of “politicizing and dividing” the country.
On the morning after the bloodshed, city leaders vowed New York would not be intimidated and said Sunday’s New York City Marathon, with 50,000 participants and some 2 million spectators anticipated, will go on as scheduled, with increased security.