Terrorism Charges Filed Against Truck Attack Suspect
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors brought terrorism charges Wednesday against the Uzbek immigrant accused in the truck rampage that left eight people dead, saying he was spurred to attack by the Islamic State group’s online calls to action and picked Halloween because he knew more people would be out on the streets.
The charges against 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov could bring the death penalty.
Even as he lay wounded in the hospital from police gunfire, Saipov asked to display the ISIS flag in his room and said “he felt good about what he had done,” prosecutors said in court papers as Saipov was brought to court in a wheelchair to face the charges.
Meanwhile, the FBI said it wanted to question a second Uzbek — 32-year-old Mukhammadzoir Kadirov — and had found him.
Saipov, accused of driving the rented Home Depot pickup truck that barreled down a bike path near the World Trade Center memorial on Tuesday, was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and committing violence and destruction of motor vehicles, resulting in death.