The 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant accused using a rented truck to mow down pedestrians and cyclists on a New York bike path carried out the deadly terrorist attack “in the name of ISIS” but was not previously the subject of any intelligence investigations, authorities said Wednesday.
Investigators are questioning the suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, who was shot and hospitalized after the vehicle attack. Officials are still trying to piece together his movements and contacts leading up to Tuesday’s attack, which killed eight people and injured 12 others, but said evidence shows he had been planning the attack for weeks.
New York Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller said Mr. Saipov’s attack followed the Islamic State’s playbook and that he left notes inside the vehicle, handwritten in Arabic, indicating his allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
“He appears to have followed, almost exactly to a T, the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instruction to their followers on how to carry out such an attack,” Commissioner Miller said.
The attack method has been used multiple times to kill hundreds in separate attacks in Europe, including in 2016 at a Bastille Day celebration in Nice, France, a Christmas Market in Berlin and most recently in August on a pedestrian thoroughfare in Barcelona.
The gist of note left behind in Tuesday’s attack said “the Islamic State would endure forever,” Commissioner Miller said.
Mr. Saipov came to the U.S. in 2010 under the diversity lottery program, also known as the green card lottery that provides foreign nationals a pathway to citizenship in the U.S. based on luck of the draw. President Trump has already said he intends to terminate that program.
It’s unclear what effect that would have had in preventing the attack as New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo told CNN the attacker was “radicalized domestically” after his arrival in the U.S.
Commissioner Miller said Mr. Saipov “has never been the subject of an NYPD intelligence bureau investigation nor has he been the subject of an FBI investigation” but authorities are looking into contacts he had with others who were on authorities’ radar.
“It appears he will have some connectivity to individuals who were the subjects of investigation though he himself was not,” Commissioner Miller said.
The victims of Tuesday’s attack include five Argentinians, one German and two Americans. Twelve others were injured, and many were still recovering from serious injuries.
Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Wednesday sent a condolence letter to President Trump, promising to deploy all the government’s “resources and means to assist in the investigation of this terrorist act.”
The suspected attacker, an Uzbek native, reportedly lived in the city of Ost before coming to the United States in 2010. Uzbekistan’s consular service said Wednesday it was combing through state records for any information it had on the 29-year-old attacker.
The subject of terrorism is a sensitive one for the largely Muslim Central Asian nation, as several other recent terror attacks have been blamed on Uzbek nationals, including the New Year’s attack on a nightclub in Turkey, the St. Petersburg subway bombing in April, and a truck attack on a crowd in Stockholm weeks later that closely mirrored the tactics in Tuesday’s New York attack.
New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill called Tuesday’s attack the “worst terrorism attack in New York since 9/11,” but authorities said they had no indication of any additional credible threats against the city.
Six of the eight people killed in Tuesday’s terrorist truck attack in New York City were foreign nationals, authorities said Wednesday.
“We are working hard to get to the bottom of what happened yesterday and why,” Commissioner O’Neill said.
The attacker rented a white Home Depot truck in New Jersey at about 2 p.m. Tuesday and then drove into the New York City. Surveillance cameras show he exited the George Washington Bridge at 2:43 p.m. and by 3:04 p.m. the vehicle entered the bicycle path along the West Side Highway at Houston Street. The truck careened down bike path at a high rate of speed for about 14 blocks and targeted pedestrians and cyclists, Commissioner Miller said.
The attack came to an end when the Home Depot truck collided with a school bus. The driver exited the vehicle and waved what turned out to be a pellet gun and a paintball gun in the air while yelling “Allahu akbar.” He was shot in the abdomen by a responding New York police officer and quickly taken into custody. Numerous knives were collected from the scene.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday’s attack would not stop New Yorkers from living their lives, and cited the 1 million people who turned out for a Halloween parade held just hours after the attack as proof.
“This cowardly act targeting the most innocent people in the middle of the most innocent pursuits was meant to make people feel like they could not go about their daily lives,” he said.
He said authorities “do not see any additional threats credible and specific against New York City” but asked all residents to be vigilant.
Commissioner O’Neill encouraged people to speak out if they see something suspicious.
“If you see something out there that doesn’t look right, you have an obligation to make a call or flag down a police car,” he said.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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