NY terror suspect planned to return to Uzbekistan, sister says
UZBEKISTAN - The younger sister of Sayfullo Saipov, the man suspected of carrying out this week’s terror attack in New York, said he had recently expressed his desire to return to his native Uzbekistan. “(He) said he had a wish to come back,” said Umida Saipova speaking with CNN in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.
“(He) said he missed us, we would live together upon his return. He started arranging his return.”
Although he longed to come home, he “had no bad thoughts and expressions about America,” she said. Umida Saipova, 27, said she is one of three sisters and was in regular contact with her brother in the United States, though she hasn’t seen him in eight years.
Those insights come days after officials said Sayfullo Saipov, 29, intentionally drove a rented truck into cyclists and pedestrians on a bike path in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring about a dozen others. He crashed into a school bus and exited the truck brandishing imitation weapons, and a New York police officer shot him and took him into custody, according to a criminal complaint.
Saipov closely followed the ISIS playbook, according to the complaint, and he told investigators the terror group had inspired him to carry out Tuesday’s attack.
Saipov appeared in federal court Wednesday and didn’t enter a plea, a source at the US attorney’s office told CNN. He is charged with providing material support to ISIS, violence and destruction of motor vehicles.
(CNN.COM/Photo: KRCR)