By Cameron Haires

Halloween of 2017 starts off scarier than usual with this horrific terrorist attack in Downtown Manhattan. Police now have in custody Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov, a United States immigrant from Uzbekistan, who is charged and identified as being the attacker.

At around 3:00 p.m, Saipov entered Manhattan with a rented home depot truck and began to drive down a cycling lane on Houston Street along the Westside Highway. He hit citizens and cyclists along the path before crashing into a school bus on Chambers Street, approximately a mile away from Houston Street.  According to police, he left the truck after crashing and was shot in the abdomen by a police officer before being taken into custody.

Sayfullo Saipov: St. Charles County Department of Corrections

He had been on the F.B.I’s radar for some time now for events unrelated to the terrorist attack. He entered the United States in 2010 and lived in Ohio. He had also lived in Fort Meyers, Florida where he worked as an Uber driver according to one of his associates. Eventually, he would settle in Paterson, New Jersey before committing his heinous crime. Police are now extensively investigating his background by talking to his associates and reviewing his history with Uber.

Mayor De Blasio and Governer Cuomo march in the Halloween parade just hours after the attack showing unity.

According to Mayor De Blasio of New York: “This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror, aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them.”

New York City is no stranger to events like this. The 2001 World Trade Center Attack was far worse than this event but, nonetheless, New Yorkers are resilient and bound to bounce back from this.

Not even four hours after the attack, Mayor De Blasio and Governor Cuomo attended and marched in the 2017 Halloween Parade and reminded us of just that.