The trial of Saifullo Saipov, accused of killing 8 people in a truck attack on a bike path in New York, has begun

The opening debate began on Monday in the federal trial of Saifullo Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant who plowed a New York City bike path with a rented pickup truck in 2017, killing eight people along the way.

The October 31 attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since September 11, 2001. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, marking the first federal death penalty trial under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Saipov was charged with 28 counts, including eight counts of murder, attempted murder and one count of providing or attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group Islamic State or ISIS. In November 2017, he pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution shared opening arguments on Monday morning in a New York courtroom filled with survivors and relatives of those killed.

Prosecutors spoke of “the destruction and horror of that day” and mentioned how Saipov allegedly beat his victims to become members of ISIS.

The judge said that the trial should last three months.

Police said Saipov, 29, was inspired by the Islamic State or ISIS terrorist group to stage the attack.

He told the FBI after the riot that he “felt good about what he did” and wanted to kill as many people as possible, according to the criminal complaint. He planned the attack for about a year, the complaint says.

How did the attack develop?

At the time of the attack, Saipov rented a white Home Depot pickup truck in Passaic, New Jersey, and drove to Manhattan, where the streets filled with Halloween celebrations.

He headed south to the West Side Highway bike path, a tree-lined highway along the Hudson River, turned onto the bike path near Houston Street, and rode at high speed for almost a mile, indiscriminately hitting cyclists and people in his path.

Saipov crashed into a school bus near Stuyvesant High School, jumped out of it and shouted “Allah Akbar,” which means “God is great” in Arabic, and brandished a shotgun and a paintball gun, officials said. Then he ran into a police officer who shot him in the stomach, Saipov was detained and hospitalized.

Investigators later found a note Saipov had left in the truck claiming that the attack had been carried out on behalf of ISIS.

Six of the dead were tourists, five of them Argentines and one Belgian. Two Americans were also killed: Darren Drake, 32, from New Milford, New Jersey, and Nicholas Cleaves, 23, from New York. Twelve people were injured in the attack.

Three interpreters were present in the courtroom on Monday, one for Saipov, one for people from Belgium and one for Argentines.

Saipov came to the US in 2010, seems to have “self-radicalized”

Saipov came to the US in 2010 from Uzbekistan, making a living as a long haul truck driver and working for Uber and living with his wife in Paterson, New Jersey.

Saifullo Khabibullaevich Saipov in the photo of the arrest in Missouri.
Saifullo Saipov in a photo of his arrest in Missouri.St. Charles, Missouri Department of Corrections

According to the Uzbek consulate and US authorities, he was born in the capital Tashkent and came to the United States on a visa under the Immigrant Visa Program in 2010. The program, according to the State Department, allows a limited number of applicants from countries with historically low immigration rates to come to the US.

Records showed that within a few months he had obtained commercial truck licenses in New Jersey and then Florida, and registered two automobile-related businesses in Ohio.

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