A person who killed eight individuals alongside a New York City bike path 5 years in the past left behind a “scene of destruction and horror” the place “screams filled the air” earlier than telling an FBI agent he was happy with the destruction he triggered and wished the flag of his terrorist group may very well be put in his hospital room, a prosecutor stated at a trial’s begin.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Li started his opening assertion in Manhattan federal court docket by recreating the phobia assault that he stated Sayfullo Saipov carried out on a sunny Halloween day in 2017 with a pickup truck he had rented and accelerated to 66 mph.
As the defendant fiddled sometimes with a pc mouse on the protection desk, the prosecutor turned briefly to forged a finger in his path, saying the masked Saipov was accountable for the deaths of the eight people and everlasting accidents to others.
Li described the “scene of destruction and horror” through which mangled bicycles have been strewn alongside a well-liked path and “screams filled the air” whereas survivors “staggered around, wounded and dazed,” trying to find their household and pals. Among the victims was a household visiting from Belgium and 10 pals from Argentina.
He stated Saipov had hoped to kill much more individuals by driving to the Brooklyn Bridge, “where he could mow down even more people.”
Saipov, 34, who has pleaded not responsible, was charged within the assault after he crashed his truck into a faculty bus, leaving one little one with severe mind injury, Li stated. He emerged from the truck with a pellet gun and a paintball gun and shouted an Arabic phrase, “Allahu Akbar!” which means “God is Great!”
Li stated Saipov meant the shout to be “celebratory.” He was shot by a police officer and arrested on the scene alongside the West Side Highway.
Bebeto Matthews / AP
Li stated the police officer shall be amongst witnesses who will recount the occasions of that day, together with an FBI agent who Saipov requested to show an “ISIS” flag in his hospital room.
“He was proud of his attack. He told an FBI agent that his goal was to kill as many people as possible,” the prosecutor stated, including that the agent will testify that Saipov smiled as he recounted his destruction.
The trial comes after a six-month-long jury choice course of geared toward hunting down these people who can’t be neutral.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick has instructed them that if Saipov was convicted, a separate “punishment phase” of the trial would happen through which the jurors can be requested to determine whether or not Saipov ought to spend life in jail or be executed. Unless they unanimously selected demise, the sentence can be life in jail, Broderick stated.
Saipov’s attorneys have stated the demise penalty course of was irrevocably tainted by ex-President Donald Trump when he tweeted in all capital letters a day after the assault that Saipov “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!”
In 2001, simply weeks earlier than the Sept. 11 assaults, a jury in Manhattan federal court docket declined to impose demise on two males convicted within the lethal bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
In 2019, Saipov spoke out throughout a pretrial listening to, saying “thousands and thousands of Muslims are dying all over the world” and questioning why he must be judged for eight deaths.
In his opening assertion, Li stated jurors will hear testimony about Saipov’s need to win the favor of the Islamic State group after he moved to the United States legally from Uzbekistan in 2010. He lived in Ohio and Florida earlier than becoming a member of his household in Paterson, New Jersey.
The prosecutor stated Saipov’s cellphones contained proof that he considered and saved 1000’s of photographs of Islamic State propaganda, together with calls to make use of vehicles and vehicles as weapons in terrorism assaults within the United States.
A protection lawyer was but to ship his opening.