NYPD Officer Who Shot Terrorist Suspect Hailed as a Hero

Police investigate a vehicle used to plow into pedestrians and bikers on the West Side Highway in Manhattan, New York, on Oct. 31, 2017. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

New York City Police Department officer Ryan Nash is credited with shooting and wounding a terror suspect who  killed eight people and injured at least 11 in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, Oct 31.

Nash, 28, is being hailed as a hero after City Councilman Joe Borelli identified him as the officer who responded.

“Here’s the hero cop the world should be talking about,” Borelli tweeted. “Police Officer Ryan Nash risked his life to save others. Thank u Ryan, thank u #NYPD”

Sen. Chuck Schumer tweeted: “We are also grateful—deeply grateful—to the NYPD & 1st responders, especially Officer Ryan Nash, who was the first on the scene.”

Nash was in the area responding to a report of a suicidal teen at Stuyvesant High School, the New York Daily News reported. About 30 minutes later, he responded to the terror attack.

“I want to commend the response of our NYPD officer that was on post near the location who stopped the carnage moments after it began,” NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill told reporters.

Officials said that Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old truck driver from Uzbekistan, drove a rented Home Depot truck onto a bike path, striking riders and pedestrians before crashing into a school bus. He got out with a pellet gun and a paintball gun, yelling, “Allahu Akbar.”

Mugshot of Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. (St. Charles County Department of Corrections via Getty Images)

When police confronted him, Saipov refused to drop the weapons.

“An officer assigned to the area fired, striking him in the stomach,” the NYPD wrote on Twitter.

Citing law enforcement sources, CBS News and NBC News later reported that he left a note in the truck pledging allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group. The note read, “ISIS Lives Forever,” a senior official who was briefed on the investigation told NBC. A knife was also found in the vehicle.

Before moving to the New York City area, Saipov lived in Florida. Kobiljon Matkarov, a fellow Uzbek national who knew him there, said there was no indication that he would carry out a terrorist attack.

“He was a very happy guy. He liked the US. He is no terrorist. He’s all the time happy, smiling all the time,” Matkarov told NBC.

Saipov entered the United States via a diversity visa lottery program, unnamed U.S. officials told the network.

He was hospitalized late on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Charges against him are forthcoming.