The suspected terrorist responsible for killing eight people and injuring at least 12 others in New York City on Tuesday reportedly left a note pledging his loyalty to ISIS.
According to senior law enforcement officials, 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov left a note in the truck he used to carry out the attack, claiming he carried out the act in the name of the Islamic State, news outlets are reporting.
NBC reported that the note translates to “ISIS Lives Forever,” citing a senior official who had been briefed on the investigation.
It was also reported that Saipov apparently shouted “Allahu Akbar” when he got out of his truck after his West Side Highway rampage.
NYC Terror Attack (Twitter)
Eight people are dead and at least a dozen injured in New York City at the hands of the terror suspect, following a rampage Tuesday afternoon when Saipov plowed a white truck at least 20 city blocks down the West Side Highway in downtown Manhattan.
After driving a rented Home Depot truck down a bike path in lower Manhattan, Saipov crashed the truck into a school bus on Chambers Street. The driver then got out of the truck with a paintball gun and a BB gun, and was subsequently shot by the New York Police Department (NYPD). He is recovering at Belleveue Hospital.
Map locator of lower Manhattan, NYC, where a truck barreled down a bike path killing 8 and injuring 15. (TNS 2017)
Saipov immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010. He is reportedly in the states on a green card and has a license from Tampa, Florida. The suspected terrorist was apparently most recently living in Passaic, New Jersey, and was reportedly working as an Uber driver.
NBC reported:
Authorities said he shouted “Allahu Akbar” at some point as he sped down the bike path and apparently deliberately rammed into a school bus for children with disabilities.
He got out of that truck afterward and was seen running through traffic on West Street with a BB gun and a paintball gun before being shot in the abdomen by police and taken into custody. He’s being treated at Bellevue Hospital, where he remains in custody.
The Washington Post spoke to a woman who knew Saipov when he first came to the United States.
They reported:
Saipov moved to the United States from Uzbekistan about five or six years ago, said Dilnoza Abdusamatova, 24, who said that Saipov stayed with her family in Cincinnati for his first two weeks in the country because their fathers were friends.
She said that Saipov then moved to Florida to start a trucking company. Her family believes he got married about a year after arriving in the U.S. and may now have two children. Around that same time, she said, he cut off contact with them.
“He stopped talking to us when he got married,” Abdusamatova said.
