New York City terror attack: news and updates

Less than 24 hours after eight people were killed and 11 injured when a truck plowed through a bike lane in Manhattan, President Donald Trump shifted from making anodyne comments about “thoughts and prayers” to proposing a policy fix: eliminating the federal government’s little-known diversity visa program.

In an early morning tweetstorm Wednesday, Trump said the sole suspect in the attack, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, “came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty.” The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Saipov had come into the US in 2010 as part of the program, which awards green cards to 50,000 people each year from countries that don’t send many other immigrants to the US.

The attack on Manhattan’s Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning injured at least four people, though none appeared to be life-threatening, as well as the suspect, 27-year-old Brooklynite Akayed Ullah. Ullah was inspired by ISIS, according to preliminary evidence uncovered by the NYPD.

ISIS encourages attacks like Monday’s — low-level, crude, perpetrated without any input from ISIS’s high command — in its propaganda. They are supposed to be signs of the group’s power and global reach, signs that no one is safe from the Islamic State.

President Donald Trump called for the execution of the suspect in the New York City terrorist attack Wednesday after learning that he had asked to hang an ISIS flag in his hospital room.

“NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!” Trump tweeted.

The point of terrorism is to terrify.

Whether it’s 9/11 or the 2015 attack in Paris or the 2017 subway attack in London or the most recent attack in New York City, the goal is always to create an omnipresent sense of danger.

Tuesday afternoon’s terror attack in Lower Manhattan killed vacationers and visitors to New York City, gruesomely cutting short the lives of at least six foreign tourists. With eight dead and nearly a dozen wounded, the Halloween-eve incident was the deadliest terror attack in the city since 9/11.

Among the dead were five Argentine men on a reunion trip to Manhattan and a Belgian woman traveling with her mother and sister. Among the wounded were three additional Belgian nationals and a sixth Argentine. As in the June attack on London Bridge in the United Kingdom, and the July attack on Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s main drag, the victims were largely tourists, who hailed from far beyond the streets of Manhattan.

A 29-year-old man drove a rental truck into a pedestrian and bike path along the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan in New York City on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 in the deadliest terror attack in the city since 9/11.

Officials have identified the suspect as Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek national who moved to the US from Uzbekistan legally in 2010. On Wednesday evening, federal prosecutors in New York filed terrorism charges against him.

Sayfullo Saipov, the sole suspect in the New York City terror attack on October 31, wasn’t from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or other countries that have been the birthplaces of militants who’ve struck the US in recent years.

Instead, he was from the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan, a country with a history of religious violence — and one whose citizens are susceptible to ISIS propaganda and recruiting efforts.

In his first public remarks after the terrorist attack in New York City on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump simultaneously managed to both insult the US criminal justice system and propose something that sounded scarily like a crackdown on basic civil liberties — all within the span of just a few minutes.

Trump’s comments came near the end of a prepared statement on the attack given to reporters on Wednesday afternoon. The president called the legal system’s method for handling terrorism prosecutions “a joke” and “a laughing stock,” arguing its insufficiently harsh punishments made future attacks more likely. He called for replacing it with an unspecified “far quicker and far greater” new system that would inflict greater pain on “these animals.”

A 29-year-old man drove a rental truck into a pedestrian and bike path along the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan in New York City Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 in the deadliest terror attack on the city since 9/11.

Officials have identified the suspect as Sayfullo Saipov, an immigrant who moved to the US legally from Uzbekistan in 2010. He was shot in the abdomen by a New York City police officer at the scene, and is currently in custody at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. Police have interviewed him and are currently waiting for an update on his condition.

President Donald Trump once used the 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California, to argue for a ban on Muslim entry to the US. Now, after an attack that killed eight people in Lower Manhattan Tuesday, he’s arguing that US immigration policy (and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer) is partially responsible.

Police say Sayfullo Saipov, the 29-year-old suspect, plowed a rented pickup truck into pedestrians and cyclists on a busy bike path Tuesday afternoon. Initially, Trump blamed the attack on “a very sick and deranged person,” offered his “condolences and prayers,” and tweeted vaguely about ordering “Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program.” (It wasn’t clear, exactly, what he actually meant — and the White House hasn’t followed up.)

On Tuesday afternoon, Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old from Uzbekistan who came to the United States in 2010, drove a rented Home Depot truck into a pedestrian and bike path in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring 11.

Although police have not yet established any ties between the attacker and a larger terrorist group such as ISIS or al-Qaeda, the method of attack mimics other ISIS-directed and inspired attacks around the world in recent years, including in Nice, France, and London.

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Eight people were killed by a driver on a bike path in New York in an incident being investigated as an act of terror; Airbus is dealing with twin scandals in the US and Europe; hundreds of refugees seeking asylum Australia are refusing to leave their detention center.