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New York attack: Suspect charged with terrorism offenses

New York attack: Suspect charged with terrorism offenses
Posted at 2:36 PM, Nov 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-01 17:48:02-04

Sayfullo Saipov has been charged with federal terrorism offenses in connection with Tuesday's attack in Manhattan in which eight people were killed, according to a charging document from the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbek national who was living in New Jersey, is being charged with providing material support to ISIS and violence and destruction of motor vehicles.

[Previous story, published at 5:13 p.m. ET]

The suspect in New York's deadliest terror attack since 9/11 had planned the attack for weeks and carried out the killings "in the name of ISIS," John Miller, NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said on Wednesday.

Authorities identified the suspect as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbekistan native who came to the US legally in 2010. Saipov allegedly drove a rented truck onto a well-trafficked bike path just blocks from the World Trade Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Eight people were killed and more than a dozen injured as the driver carved a path of destruction through several blocks of Lower Manhattan. Saipov crashed the rented truck into a school bus, left the vehicle brandishing imitation firearms and was shot by police, officials said. He survived and was taken into custody, police said.

In carrying out the attack, Saipov relied on the playbook laid out by ISIS in recent years, officials said. Miller said that handwritten notes in Arabic found near the scene had both symbols and words, but the general message was that the Islamic State would endure forever.

"He appears to have followed almost exactly to a 'T' the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack," Miller said.