NY suspect confesses IS inspired, ‘felt good’ after attack
Uzbek man planned attack a year ago, charged with terrorism offense
— The Uzbek immigrant behind New York’s worst attack in 16 years confessed to acting in the name of the Islamic State group and “felt good” about the killings, having planned an assault for a year, investigators said Wednesday.
The shocking details emerged after federal agents questioned Sayfullo Saipov in a Manhattan hospital, injured with a police bullet to the abdomen after mowing down pedestrians and cyclists, and colliding with a school bus.
The attack killed eight people, five of them childhood friends from Argentina celebrating 30 years since their high school graduation, a 31-year-old Belgian mother, and two U.S. men, from New York and neighboring New Jersey.
Of 12 injured, four remained in a critical condition following the deadliest attack in America’s financial capital since the al-Qaida hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001.
Saipov first started planning an attack a year ago, before settling two months ago on using a truck to kill as many people as possible during Halloween celebrations, according to a federal terrorism complaint.
Prosecutors unveiled the terrorism charges, saying he had waived his rights and confessed to being inspired by IS propaganda, after yelling “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Greatest” in Arabic) upon exiting a rented pickup truck in Lower Man- hattan on Tuesday.
“Saipov committed this attack in support of ISIS,” U.S. acting Manhattan attorney Joon Kim announced.
Saipov was subsequently presented in a wheelchair before a U.S. magistrate, where the charges were formally read in a Manhattan federal court.
He was not required to enter a plea, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan told AFP.
‘Hang him’
He was found in possession of multiple knives in a black bag, a Florida driving license and two cell phones that contained thousands of IS propaganda images and dozens of IS propaganda videos, Kim said.
“Depicting, among other things, ISIS fighters killing prisoners by running over them with a tank, beheading them, and shooting them in the face,” Kim added.
“Saipov requested to display ISIS’s flag in his hospital room and stated that he felt good about what he had done,” the charging document revealed.
The complaint listed two counts: provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and violence and destruction of motor vehicles. It was not immediately clear if he would face further charges.
Kim said the material support charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Federal prosecutors could also potentially seek the death penalty.
In the largely Muslim neighborhood where Saipov lived with his wife and children for little over a year in the New Jersey town of Paterson, residents seethed with anger Wednesday, furious he had besmirched their hard-working immigrant reputation.
“They should hang him!” snapped the manager of a launderette near his modest apartment. “If you come to the U.S., it’s to do something better, not something bad!” she spat, refusing to give her name out of fear.
A cop shot Saipov after he exited the truck brandishing paintball and pellet guns.