Accused terrorist Saifullo Saipov attacked New York Halloween to maximize death: prosecutors

The accused terrorist chose Halloween, when the streets are packed, to “tell people how the crop is” in a 6,000-pound truck as part of his deceptive bid to join ISIS, prosecutors told jurors in Manhattan Tuesday.

In his closing remarks at the Saifullo Saipov death penalty trial in Manhattan Federal Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richman said the Uzbek native wanted to become a member of the Islamic State terrorist group by attacking Americans on their home soil.

That target was all Saipov had in mind as he raced down a busy bike path that paralleled Hudson River Park on October 31, 2017, killing eight people and injuring 11, according to a prosecutor.

Richman said before the attack that Saipov’s motives were clear based on his Internet search history. During the bloodshed, he wore hand-drawn ISIS slogans.

“And after his attack was completed, after he turned that bike path into a scene of bleeding and horror, after he crashed into a school bus with such force that he had to be sawn apart — after he got many hours of medical care in the same hospital. where some of his victims were being treated — he asked to hang the ISIS flag and smiled,” Richman said.

“The Islamic State will endure.” Those were his words to tell the world why – why he attacked this city,” the prosecutor added, citing Saipov’s notebook as evidence. “Why did he target innocent civilians. Why did he turn the bike path into his battlefield, why did he ruthlessly overtake them.”

Richman said Saipov methodically researched for months how to carry out the attack and chose the truck as his weapon to do the most damage. The prosecutor pointed to Saipov’s phone records showing how he drew inspiration from the 2016 terrorist attack in the city of Nice on the French Riviera, in which Mohamed Lauayège-Bouhel, a French-Tunisian man, killed 84 people after he crashed into a crowd of revelers on Capture Day. Bastille in the truck before opening fire on the crowd.

Richman said that Saipov planned to maximize the number of people he killed by exploring busy areas that attracted large crowds, and told the FBI that he deliberately chose Halloween because he knew there would be more people outside.

“He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly why he did it. And he knew exactly what the result would be: he would become part of ISIS,” Richman said.

“To swear allegiance to a brutal terrorist organization that he believes is the only true follower of sharia law.”

Saipov, 34, pleaded not guilty to 28 counts. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, the first such case in President Biden’s Justice Department.

If jurors find Saipov guilty of crimes carrying the death penalty, they will reconvene to unanimously decide whether he is executed or sent to prison for life, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Vernon Broderick said.

During the trial, the jury saw a heartbreaking video of Saipov allegedly plowing his way down a bike path in a truck he rented from a Home Depot store in Passaic, New Jersey.

Blood-curdling screams can be heard in the video of the attack and its aftermath. The jury saw footage of the accused terrorist facing a hail of bullets from a city police officer after Saipov allegedly crashed into a school bus, breaking his death trail.

The bloodshed killed 32-year-old Darren Drake from New Jersey and 23-year-old New Yorker Nicholas Cleaves.

Argentine tourists Hernan Diego Mendoza, Alejandro Damian Panyukko, Ariel Erliy, Hernan Ferrucci and Diego Enrique Angelini also died. Only half of a group of 10 high school friends who had gathered in town to celebrate 30 years of friendship made it home.

Anne-Laure Decadt, 31, from Belgium, mother of two, was fatally shot while driving with her two sisters and mother. The jury heard testimony from her devastated loved ones that they saw her die on the side of the road.

Saipov’s lawyer, David Patton, who is expected to give his opinion later on Tuesday, told jurors from the start that the trial would not be normal and that his client was guilty of murder.

Patton narrowed his defense to refute prosecutors’ version that Saipov staged the massacre to join the Islamic State terrorist group known as ISIS. The Uzbek native did not grow up in an overtly religious society, and his family members do not hold extremist views, his lawyer argues.

According to Patton, Saipov became radicalized in the United States while working as a truck driver, spreading time-consuming conspiracy theories.