We're learning more about ISIS terrorist Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov by the hour as authorities question him at the hospital, interview his wife and search his residences in New Jersey and Tampa. He came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 through the Diversity Visa Program.
According to reporting from Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Saipov was known to authorities before his attack and part of a "broader terrorism investigation." Many of his friends are on the radar, too.
"The group that he rolled with was known to law enforcement before the attack," Herridge reported.
Catherine Herridge: "The suspect planned this attack for weeks... had connections to individuals who are already known to law enforcement." pic.twitter.com/7Qhb85fwkQ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 1, 2017
Saipov used a truck to mow down pedestrians in a bike lane on New York City's lower west side Monday and planned to use knives to kill more people once the vehicle was stopped. He was shot in the buttocks by police and bragged at the hospital about how he should have killed more people. Eight are dead.
According to ABC News, Saipov was interviewed by the feds in 2015 on suspicions of terrorism. One of his friends, considered a terrorist by DHS, is missing.
The suspected New York City attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, was interviewed in 2015 by federal agents in the Department of Homeland Security Investigations Unit about possible ties to suspected terrorists, but the agents did not have enough evidence to open a case on him, laws enforcement officials tell ABC News.
Saipov's name and address was listed as a “point of contact” for two different men whose names were entered into the Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit’s list after they came to the United States from “threat countries,” one federal official told ABC News.
One of the two men has vanished and is being actively sought by federal agents as a “suspected terrorist.”
In 2014, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al- Adnani’s instructed fighters and ISIS sympathizers to use vehicles and other common tools as weapons.
“If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him. Do not lack,” he said.