CNN
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Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the trial of Sayfullo Saipov, who faces federal terrorism charges for allegedly running down pedestrians with a rented truck on Manhattan’s West Side bike path on Halloween 2017, killing eight people.
Saipov faces 28 counts, including eight counts of murder, 18 counts of attempted murder, and other terrorism charges in connection with the deadliest terror attack in New York since 9/11.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which make him eligible for the death penalty. The trial will be the first federal capital case heard under Biden – who had previously pledged to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level.
After plowing into cyclists and pedestrians on the bike path, Saipov crashed into a school bus and left the truck while brandishing a pellet gun and paintball gun, authorities said at the time. He was then shot by an NYPD officer and taken into custody, officials said.
Saipov allegedly told investigators he planned the attack for about a year and chose Halloween because he believed there would be more people on the streets, according to a criminal complaint.
He had planned to use the truck to hit pedestrians in the area where he carried out the attack and “then proceed to the Brooklyn Bridge to continue to strike pedestrians,” the complaint said.
Saipov told investigators he was inspired by ISIS videos to use a truck and chose the vehicle “to inflict maximum damage against civilians,” according to the criminal complaint.
Saipov also allegedly wanted to display ISIS flags on the truck during the attack but decided against it to avoid drawing attention, prosecutors said.
Investigators found about 90 videos and 3,800 pictures, many of which were ISIS-related propaganda, on his cell phone, the complaint said.
The videos found on Saipov’s cell phone included graphic scenes of ISIS fighters killing prisoners, beheadings and “instructions for how to make a homemade improvised explosive device,” the complaint said.
During an interview with investigators, Saipov asked to hang an ISIS flag in his hospital room and said, “he felt good about what he had done,” according to the complaint.
Saipov came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 and was living in New Jersey before the attack. He lived with his wife and three children and drove for Uber, according to officials.
He came to the US on a diversity immigrant visa, which allows people from countries with low recent immigration to apply for a visa and green card, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He later became a legal permanent resident, an NYPD official said.
Of the eight people killed in the attack, five were from Argentina, two were Americans, and one was from Belgium, police said.
The Argentinians were part of a group celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation in New York City.
Argentina’s Foreign Affairs Ministry identified them as Hernán Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi.
Nicholas Cleves, 23, from New York, and Darren Drake, 32, from New Milford, New Jersey, were the two Americans killed.
Ann-Laure Decadt, a 31-year-old Belgian woman, was also among those killed, according to a statement from her husband, Alexander Naessens. Decadt, a mother of two young sons, was on a trip to New York with her two sisters and her mother, Naessens said after the attack.
Source: CNN
