–
New York Police Chief James P. O’Neill called the attack a tragedy of the greatest proportions. And New York Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke of a particularly cowardly act of terror, as he said. It is a painful day for New York and the city’s West Side, in the middle of Manhattan, not far from Ground Zero, the scene of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Small truck drives into people
The assassination bore the hallmarks of the last terrorist attacks with an Islamist background in European cities such as London, Nice and Berlin. The driver of a borrowed pickup truck, who was later found to be a 29-year-old man, drove at high speed at 3:00 p.m. local time, first onto a bike lane, then onto a footpath, in an attempt to hit as many people as possible, until he stopped crashed into a school bus about a kilometer and stopped.
There, the driver yanked open the car door, yelled Allahu Akbar, God is great, and pretended to be heavily armed – in fact, it was just a toy paintball gun and an airgun he was holding. Security forces, who are ubiquitous in New York, fired on the man, hitting him in the stomach and arresting him. He is being treated medically. The authorities are convinced that the 29-year-old was a lone perpetrator.
Terror in New York:
Conversation with DLF security correspondent Gerwald Herter (03:48)
–
–
–
–
Alleged perpetrator is said to come from Uzbekistan
He is said to be from Uzbekistan and came to the United States in 2010. He resided legally in the United States with a green card. Notes in Arabic script were allegedly found near the pick-up truck, which suggested a connection with the terrorist militia Islamic State, reports CNN, among others. However, there was initially no official confirmation of this. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke of a “lone wolf” who, according to the perpetrator profile of Islamist terrorists, may have become radicalized on the Internet and planned and carried out the attack on his own. However, the exact background and motive for this act are still in the dark.
Tens of thousands marched on Halloween
If the assassin had waited a few more hours, a much greater catastrophe might have happened – tens of thousands marched through the streets of New York on Halloween evening. Armed security forces lined the streets. Mayor de Blasio said the attack was aimed at the spirit of the city, but that New Yorkers are strong and resilient and would never be intimidated by an act of terrorism.
Trump wants to tighten security checks
Donald Trump was immediately informed and kept up to date by the security forces. In the short message service Twitter, he initially wrote that the attack had been committed by a sick and disturbed person; he then identified the act as a “terrorist attack”. Shortly thereafter, he tweeted that “We must not allow ISIS to return to our country after defeating it in the Middle East and elsewhere.”
The White House later released an official statement from the President expressing his condolences to the victims’ families and thanking the security forces for their decisive action. These brave men and women embodied the true American spirit of resilience and courage, the Oval Office statement said. Late that evening local time, the president tweeted that he had instructed the Department of Homeland Security to “intensify our already extreme security screening program.”
–
