The man accused of plowing into people on a lower Manhattan bike path Tuesday had apparently been planning the attack for a number of weeks, police officials said today.
“He did this in the name of ISIS, and along with the other items recovered at the scene was some notes that further indicate that,” John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism of the NYPD, said this morning on the attack that killed eight. “He appears to have followed almost exactly to a ‘T’ the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack.”
— The sole suspect, identified as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, was shot in the abdomen by a police officer and was transported to a hospital for treatment.
— Authorities are calling the incident a suspected terror attack.
— A handwritten note in Arabic were reportedly recovered from the scene. Miller said, “The gist of the note was that the Islamic State would endure forever.”
— Investigators have since been able to talk to Saipov, who is expected to survive. It’s unclear what, if anything, investigators learned from him, though one official told ABC News the suspect seemed “proud” of the attack.
— Investigators spent the overnight hours collecting video and still images from traffic and surveillance cameras along the route of the attack, sources said. Those images show that Saipov drove carefully and at moderate speed until he entered the jogging path and accelerated; investigators believe that suggests the suspect knew where he wanted to begin the attack. Authorities are pouring through toll records and other digital records to see if Saipov had scoped out the location beforehand, sources said.
Here’s what is known about the attack, the victims and the suspect:
New York terror attack suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov from Uzbekistan “did this in the name of ISIS” and had been planning the attack for weeks.
THE ATTACK
According to police, a driver in a rented Home Depot pickup truck started mowing down cyclists and pedestrians on a bike path near West Houston Street on the West Side Highway around 3:05 p.m. The suspect drove south for about a mile, leaving strewn bodies and mangled bicycles in his wake.
Witness Eugene Duffy described one victim’s body as “mangled,” saying he was “traumatized” from what he saw.
“Everybody was running,” Duffy told ABC New York station WABC-TV. “Everything was happening so fast.”
The suspect eventually crashed into a school bus near Chambers Street, just across from Stuyvesant High School.
After colliding with the bus, he emerged from the car with a paintball gun and a pellet gun, allegedly shouting “Allahu Akbar,” before being shot in the abdomen by NYPD police officer Ryan Nash. The suspect was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.
According to authorities, six victims were pronounced dead at the scene and two more died in the hospital. Twelve were injured, including two students and two staff members on the school bus.
THE VICTIMS
Five of the people killed have been identified as natives of Argentina. According to the country’s consulate, they were visiting New York City to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation. The five Argentinians killed were identified as Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernan Ferruchi, the consulate said.
Two Americans were also killed, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said this morning, without naming them.
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