Relatives of Belgian hiker killed in New York bike lane attack describe hellish trial scene

Members of a Belgian family, whose relative was one of eight people killed when an ISIS-loving terrorist crashed into them on a bike path in 2017, told Manhattan federal court Tuesday how their idyllic West Side Highway ride turned into a nightmarish bloody scene. . .

Tourists — Liv Visser and her daughters Friedel Decade, Justine Decade, and the murdered Ann-Laure Decade — were biking from Central Park to Lower Manhattan on that warm and clear Halloween day when Saifullo Saipov allegedly staged the murderous truck attack.

As Saipov, 34, was speeding down the trail in a rented Home Depot truck, he crashed into Ann Laure, who was thrown off her bike and left motionless and bloody on the ground.

“Her gaze was lifeless,” her sister Friedel said Tuesday. “She just stared into the air and a lot of blood came out of her mouth.”

Justine, who was hit by a truck and thrown off her bicycle but not seriously injured, recalled hearing Friedel scream amidst the commotion.

“She didn’t say anything. She just screamed very loudly,” Justine told the court.

“I turned around to look, then I saw Ann Laura lying next to her bike,” she continued.

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Their mom, who was leading the girls on the trip, recalled hearing “an extremely loud sound” as the foursome passed Pier 40, near the Houston Street intersection.

“It was a hell of a sound, like the sound of an engine,” Liv testified.

Liv and her daughters arrived in New York three days before the “girl trip” attack to celebrate milestone birthdays and the anniversary of the mom’s health scare.

On October 31, they rented bikes and rode from Lower Manhattan to Central Park, where they had lunch at the Loeb Boathouse restaurant and planned a trip to the top of Rockefeller Center.

After lunch they got back on their bikes and headed south on the west side of Manhattan, joining the bike path along the West Side Highway.

It was then that Saipov allegedly drove into the lane off the road, reaching speeds of about 60 miles per hour as he mowed down his victims.

As the truck raced past them, Justine, Liv, and Friedel saw Ann-Laure lying motionless on the ground next to her bicycle.

“One of her eyes was very swollen and there was profuse bleeding from her mouth,” Liv told jurors.

Christian Wagener

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Saipov’s lawyers did not cross-examine family members who had traveled from Belgium to testify in Manhattan federal court hearings that began on Monday.

The accused terrorist has been charged with 28 counts for a bloody rampage that left eight people dead and many more injured. He faces the death penalty if found guilty.

In his opening statement on Monday, Saipov’s lawyer David Patton told jurors they would not contest whether he carried out the attack, but said prosecutors’ assertion that he did it to become a member or “soldier” of ISIS was inaccurate.

“He was expecting death. He expected to be a martyr,” Patton said.

Before giving the heartbreaking testimony of the surviving family members, FBI Special Agent Joanna Marudas testified that she spoke with Saipov for about nine hours in his room at Bellevue Hospital.

Saipov welcomed the interrogation and asked to hang the ISIS flag in the hospital room, Marudas testified.

According to Marudas, the accused terrorist told the agent that he believed he had been “instructed” to attack the video of the ISIS leader at the time.

“The defendant stated that no one helped him, but he was instructed to do so by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” she said.