Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbek man, was a father and a small business owner before he drove a truck down a lower Manhattan bike lane, killing eight and injuring at least 12.
In a note he left in his truck, he pledged allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group. Federal agents interviewed him two years ago about connections to suspected terrorists.
Saipov moved to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 after he received a green card through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program—the green card lottery.
He also lived in Tampa, Florida, where he rented an apartment in a complex called Heritage at Tampa, near the Hillsborough River.
Some people who knew Saipov from several years ago described him as friendly and happy.
Kobiljon Matkarov, also an Uzbek, met Saipov when they both lived in Florida. “He was very happy guy,” he told NBC. “He liked the U.S. He is no terrorist. He’s all the time happy, smiling all the time.”
He rented a truck from a Home Depot in Passaic, New Jersey, and on Tuesday, Oct. 31, drove it across the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan and sped down the Hudson River bike path, which runs between the Hudson River and the West Side Highway.
He entered the bike lane near Pier 40 and drove down about 4,000 feet, plowing through bikers and pedestrians until he intentionally crashed into a school bus near the Stuyvesant High School, injuring two adults and two children inside.
He then exited the truck, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is great” in Arabic), brandished a pellet gun and a paintball gun and ran through traffic on the highway until he was shot in the abdomen by NYPD Officer Ryan Nash, 28, who was out on a different call but spotted Saipov and chased him.
Saipov was taken into custody and is expected to recover from his injury.