New York terror attack: What we know

A man plowed a pickup truck into bicyclists and pedestrians on a path in New York City on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 12 others in the deadliest terror attack in the city since Sept. 11, 2001.

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Here’s what we know:

What do we know about the attack?

Police said a man rammed a rented Home Depot pickup truck into a crowded bicycle path in Manhattan around 3 p.m. Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring nearly a dozen others.

The truck hit several people before colliding with a school bus, injuring two children and two adults. After the crash, the truck’s driver got out of the pickup with what appeared to be two firearms in hand, authorities said. A police officer officer shot the driver in the stomach, and the suspect was taken to a hospital, officials said.

Police later recovered a paintball gun and a pellet gun from the scene.

“Based on the information that we have at this moment, this was an act of terror,” New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said in the aftermath of the attacks. “We know that this action was intended to break our spirit, but we also know New Yorkers are strong, New Yorkers are resilient and our spirit will never be moved by an act of violence, an act meant to intimidate us.”

Who is the suspect?

Investigators identified the driver as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, 29. Police said Saipov came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010.

According to WFTV, authorities found a Florida driver's license with a Tampa address on Saipov when he was taken into custody. Neighbors interviewed by the station did not recall seeing him there.

NJ.com reported that court records from 2012 and 2015 listed a Paterson, New Jersey, address for Saipov. The Home Depot pickup truck used in the attack was rented in New Jersey, authorities said, according to The Associated Press.

What do we know about the attack’s ties to terror groups?

No group immediately took credit for the attack, but police said they found evidence that appeared to connect Saipov to ISIS.

John Miller, the deputy New York police commissioner for intelligence and counter-terrorism, said at a news conference Wednesday that authorities found a note, handwritten in Arabic, at the scene of Tuesday’s attack. The note said “that the Islamic State would endure forever,” Miller said.

"(It) appears he had been planning this for a number of weeks," Miller added. "He appears to have followed almost exactly to a T the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack."

Police shot Saipov after he jumped out of the truck with what turned out to be fake guns in each hand and yelled, "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great" in Arabic, CNN reported.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo

that Saipov was “radicalized domestically.”

"The evidence shows -- and again, it's only several hours, and the investigation is ongoing -- but that after he came to the United States is when he started to become informed about ISIS and radical Islamic tactics," Cuomo told the news network. "We have no evidence yet of associations or a continuing plot or associated plots, and our only evidence to date is that this was an isolated incident that he himself performed."

What do we know about the victims?

Five Argentines and one Belgian are among the eight people killed in Tuesday’s attack, according to officials.

In a statement, Argentina’s foreign ministry identified five slain friends who were visiting New York City from the city of Rosario as Hernán Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi. The five were part of a group celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation, officials said.

"They were five young entrepreneurs, model citizens in Rosario society," Argentina's President Mauricio Macri said Wednesday in Buenos Aires, The New York Times reported. "We all must stand together in the fight against terrorism."

Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders said one Belgian was also killed in the attack. The person was not immediately identified.

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