Photo courtesy of Bebeto Matthews. | Sayfullo Saipov, a man from Uzbekistan, drove a rented Home Depot truck down a bike path in New York City, killing at least eight and injuring 11 in a potential terrorist action.
A rented Home Depot truck sped down a bike path in New York City, sending cyclists and pedestrians scrambling for safety. Bodies and mangled bicycles lay strewn along the path next to the West Side Highway. At least eight people were killed and 11 others were injured in what New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is calling “a particularly cowardly act of terror.”
The suspect, identified as Sayfullo Saipov, is originally from Uzbekistan and moved to the U.S. in 2010. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry made a statement confirming that Argentine citizens were among those killed.
It is unclear if there were any other foreign individuals who were among the killed or wounded. The motive behind the attack has not been determined yet, but it is being investigated as an act of terror.
A law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation told the Associated Press that witnesses heard the suspect shout “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” The suspect then jumped out of the truck with what investigators determined to be fake guns and was shot in the abdomen by police before being taken into custody.
“My first thought was ‘is this person Muslim?”’ Shazia Malik, a junior life science for business major, said. Malik went on to say that she feels numb to these attacks, as they happen so often.
This attack comes after a deadly year involving extremist groups. Earlier this month, 358 people were killed in Somalia’s most devastating terrorist attack when a truck bomb exploded in a crowded street in Mogadishu. 56 people remain missing from that attack, and another 228 people remain injured.
José Cabrera, a senior entrepreneurship studies major, stated that alienating Muslims and Middle Eastern people will only further feed into what extremist groups want. Continuing to mistreat Muslims and Middle Easterners will make it easier to recruit disenfranchised people, Cabrera believes.
“I feel like I have to make a better front with people, in the way I act and the way I carry myself every day,” Malik said. “So what they see in the news, they won’t see the same thing in me.”
By: Savin Mattozzi ~Staff Writer~