Boing Boing Staging

NYC TERROR ATTACK: Truck driver plows into bike lane, multiple deaths and injuries

Xeni Jardin

The driver of a Home Depot truck who plowed into people in a Lower Manhattan bike lane today is said to have shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ while he killed them.

At the time of this post, news reports say at least 8 people were killed by the attacker, and 15 or more are injured.

The incident is being treated as a terrorist attack by U.S. counterterrorism officials. They also say this incident is considered effectively over, the threat contained — for now.

ABC News and other organizations are now reporting the attacker was an Uzbek national who lived in Florida.

At a briefing after the attack, authorities say the 29-year-old male driver exited the truck brandishing two handguns. An NYPD officer shot him, wounded him in his abdomen, and he was taken to the hospital. A pellet gun and a paintball gun were recovered at the scene, presumably to ensure the attacker would be able to commit ‘suicide by cop.’

No evidence of a wider plot or scheme to perpetrate more attacks today, per New York governor Andrew Cuomo at a briefing at 5:25pm ET. Democracy “makes us a target for people who oppose those concepts, and we have lived through this before,” said the governor. “We’re not going to let them win. If we change our lives, and we contort to them, they win and we lose.”

It’s Halloween. Authorities are telling people to go trick-or-treating.

From the NYC mayor’s briefing at 5:25 ET.

From the New York Times:

At least six people were killed when a man drove a pickup truck as many as 20 blocks down a bike path next to the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon before he jumped out with fake guns and was shot by police officers, the authorities said.

The police did not immediately call it a terrorist attack. But two law enforcement officials said that after the attacker got out of the truck, he was heard yelling, “Allahu Akbar.” (Arabic for “God is great.”)

The motorist, driving south down the path in a Home Depot rental truck, hit numerous people as nearby Stuyvesant High School was letting out for the day, officials said. At least 15 people were injured.


“He jumped out of the truck with a pellet gun, yelled, ‘Allahu Akbar,” a law enforcement official said.

Photo, top: Reuters. ‘A woman is aided by first responders after sustaining injury on a bike path in lower Manhattan in New York, NY, U.S., October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid’

A Home Depot truck which drove down the bike path alongside the West Side Highway at full speed and hit several people is seen as New York city first responders are at the crime scene near a bike path in lower Manhattan in New York, NY, U.S., October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid – RC1586240530

Police block off the street after a shooting incident in New York City, U.S. October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton – HP1EDAV1LQI18

Exit mobile version