This story was reported by Anthony M. DeStefano, Maria Alvarez, Laura Figueroa Hernandez, Matthew Chayes, Stefanie Dazio, Robert E. Kessler, Mark Morales, Michael O’Keeffe, Pervaiz Shallwani, Joan Gralla, Chau Lam and Emily Ngo. It was written by Bart Jones.

Investigators worked overnight to find out what led a lone-wolf terrorist to drive a rented pickup truck Tuesday and careen down a bike path next to the Hudson River, killing eight people, six of them foreign tourists, officials said.

At least 11 other people were injured in the worst terrorist event in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center towers — just blocks away from Tuesday’s attack — came crashing down. Investigators reportedly found a handwritten note in the truck pledging allegiance to ISIS.

The rampage began at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday, when the suspect, identified by sources as Sayfullo Saipov, 29, an Uzbekistan immigrant, drove a rented Home Depot truck, entering the West Side Highway bicycle path at Houston Street, mowing down bikers and pedestrians on the waterfront pathway until he left at Chambers Street.

He collided with a school bus near Stuyvesant High School, injuring two adults and two children inside, and emerged from the vehicle holding what appeared to be two firearms — later recovered and determined to be a paintball gun and a pellet gun — after the crash, officials said.

An NYPD officer assigned to the First Precinct, Ryan Nash, 28, of Medford, stopped the attack when he shot the man in the abdomen. The suspect was taken into custody, and sources said he was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. The AP reported he was in critical condition but was expected to survive.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill praised the officer, saying he “stopped the carnage moments after it began.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was a “very painful day in our city. . . . 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.”

Source: https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/shooting-nyc-dead-injured-1.14702312

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