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A man who deliberately plowed a rented pickup truck into pedestrians and cyclists on the West Side Highway bike path in 2017 has been found guilty of murder and terrorism charges in Manhattan federal court.
Sayfullo Saipov, 31, killed eight people and injured more than a dozen others. It was the deadliest attack in New York since 9/11. A jury will now hear further evidence and then deliver another verdict on whether to impose the death penalty.
The U.S. Department of Justice opted to continue seeking the death penalty, despite President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to abolish capital punishment in federal cases.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Saipov, a native of Uzbekistan, was inspired by to kill “nonbelievers” by ISIS videos he watched on his cellphone. In one video, prosecutors say Saipov watched Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then-leader of ISIS, question what Muslims in the U.S. and elsewhere were doing to avenge the killing of Muslims in Iraq.
Amber Tyree, a special agent with the FBI and a member of its Joint Terrorism Task Force, said in the criminal complaint that Saipov’s plans came straight out of ISIS’ official magazine, which suggested using a vehicle to attack people to maximize “kill count.”
Tyree also said Saipov asked to display ISIS’ flag in his hospital room and said he felt good about what he had done.
Saipov’s lawyer, federal public defender David Patton, did not deny the charges in court, according to press reports. He said Saipov was not motivated by a desire to become a member of ISIS, but rather expected to die in the attack, the press reports said.
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