NEW YORK -- A man is accused of plowing a rented pickup down a crowded bike path along the Hudson River in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 before being shot by a police officer in what officials called the deadliest terrorist attack on New York City since Sept. 11.
The rampage ended when the suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, smashed into a school bus, jumped out of his truck and ran up and down the highway waving a pellet gun and paintball gun and shouting "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," before he was shot in the abdomen by the officer, officials said. He remained in critical condition Tuesday evening but was expected to survive.
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the incident a terrorist attack, and federal law enforcement authorities took the lead in the investigation. Two law enforcement officials said investigators discovered handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck that indicated allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group.
De Blasio said at a news conference, "Based on information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians."
Officials did not identify the victims of the attack, but Argentina's foreign minister said five of the dead were from that country.
And the deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister of Belgium said in a tweet that one of the dead was Belgian.
The attack unfolded as nearby schools, including Stuyvesant High School, were letting out on a crisp Halloween afternoon. It ended five blocks north of the World Trade Center. The driver left a roughly milelong crime scene: a tree-lined bike path strewn with bodies, mangled bicycles and bicycle parts, from wheels twisted like pretzels to a dislodged seat.
Saipov, a slim, bearded man, was seen in videos running through traffic after the attack with the paintball gun in one hand and the pellet gun in the other. The authorities credited the officer who shot him with saving lives. Six people died at the scene and two others died at a hospital, officials said.
The city's annual Greenwich Village and Brooklyn Halloween parades went on as scheduled, as both De Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged New Yorkers to go about their daily lives.
By Tuesday night, New York remained under heightened security with heavily armed police deployed at transit stations and in front of its iconic buildings.
Saipov came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010, and had a green card that allowed permanent legal residence. He had apparently lived in Paterson, N.Y., and Tampa, Fla.
Records show Saipov was a commercial truck driver who formed a pair of businesses in Ohio after moving to the U.S. The first business, Sayf Motors Inc., used the address of a family friend near Cincinnati with whom Saipov had stayed for a couple of weeks after his arrival in the country. The second, Bright Auto LLC, used an address near Cleveland.
A trucking industry website listed Saipov at a Paterson, N.J., address that authorities searched Tuesday night. Court records related to trucking-related infractions list Saipov with addresses in Paterson and the Cleveland suburbs.
The family friend with whom Saipov stayed in Ohio, Dilnoza Abdusamatova, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Saipov was "really calm" and worked hard.
"He always used to work," Abdusamatova said. "He wouldn't go to parties or anything. He only used to come home and rest and leave and go back to work."
Police said Saipov rented the Home Depot truck about 2 p.m. in New Jersey, entering the bike path about an hour later on West Street a few blocks from the new World Trade Center, the site of the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history. A police bomb squad scoured the truck but found no explosives.
A Home Depot Inc. spokesman said the company, based in Atlanta, was "fully cooperating" with law enforcement officials in the truck attack investigation.
Cuomo said the attack mirrored other "lone wolf" incidents such as the 19-ton cargo truck that drove through a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations last year in Nice, France, killing 86 and injuring 458.
"The truth is New York is an international symbol of freedom and democracy," Cuomo said. "That also makes us a target for those people who oppose those concepts."
Tuesday's attack also evoked calls from terrorist magazines, including in a recent edition of Rumiyah, a magazine used by the Islamic State group, for attackers to mow down pedestrians with trucks, continue the attacks with a knife or a gun and claim credit by shouting or leaving leaflets.
Sirus Minovi, 14, a freshman at Stuyvesant High School, was with friends at the corner of Chambers and West streets when the truck crashed.
"We heard people screaming, 'gun' 'shooter' and 'run away,'" Minovi said. "We thought it was a Halloween prank."
He said he realized it was not a joke when he saw the man staggering through the intersection, screaming words he could not make out. A passer-by approached the attacker, apparently trying to calm him, Minovi said, until the man realized the attacker had a weapon and backed away with his hands up.
Emily, 12, a seventh-grader at I.S. 289 who declined to give her last name, had been walking on her usual route home just after 3 p.m. when other students ran toward her.
"All the kids were screaming, 'Run!' 'Gun!' 'Run inside,'" she said, still wearing cat ears for her Halloween costume. She said mothers pushing strollers and children in costumes ran in a pack back toward the school.
President Donald Trump responded to the attack on Twitter: "In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!"
While police did not specifically blame the Islamic State group for the New York bloodshed and the extremist group did not immediately claim responsibility, Trump railed against the militants, tweeting, "We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!"
He also announced that he had ordered the Department of Homeland Security "to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program."
Trump's extreme-vetting policy on immigrants entails more stringent investigative measures intended to identify those who may sympathize with extremists or pose a national security risk to the United States.
Trump tweeted late Tuesday, "Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!"
Meanwhile, Islamic State supporters celebrated the attack in online postings, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity.
Saipov wove a deadly path on a stretch usually bustling with commuters, runners and cyclists, drawn by the downtown offices nearby or the shimmering Hudson River.
He reportedly turned onto the bike path alongside the West Side Highway at Houston Street just after 3 p.m. and drove south, striking numerous pedestrians and cyclists, many of them in the back, the authorities said. People scattered and dove to the asphalt.
The truck, labeled with a sign saying, "Rent me starting at $19," rammed into the bus near Chambers Street. The bus serves two schools in Lower Manhattan and transports students with special needs. Two adults and two children on the bus were injured, the authorities said.
Saipov jumped out of the truck before a uniformed officer shot him, Police Commissioner James O'Neill said. The police said they were not looking for additional suspects.
Officials said 11 people were taken to nearby hospitals with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
Belgians and Argentines were confirmed to be among the wounded.
Argentina's Foreign Ministry said the Argentine victims were in a group of friends who traveled to New York from Rosario to celebrate the 30th anniversary of graduating from Polytechnic College of Rosario.
Information for this article was contributed by Benjamin Mueller, William K. Rashbaum and Al Baker of The New York Times; by Colleen Long, Jake Pearson, Sadie Gurman, Tom Hays, Michael Balsamo and Adam Geller of The Associated Press; and by Mark Berman, Devlin Barrett, Rachel Siegel, Wesley Lowery and Eli Rosenberg of The Washington Post; and by Henry Goldman of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 11/01/2017