DC Police Ramp Up Security In Wake Of NYC Terror Attack

GEORGETOWN, DC — The Metropolitan Police Department ramped up security at the Georgetown Halloween celebration in the wake of the New York City terror attack. It will continue to be vigilant and fight against terror in the district, police chief Peter Newsham said.

"As the law enforcement agency responsible for protecting the nation's capital, we are actively working in coordination with our local and federal law enforcement partners, as well as homeland security agencies to ensure the safety of all visitors and residents to the District of Columbia," Newsham said in a news release Wednesday.

The New York City attack killed eight people on a Tribeca bike path on Halloween afternoon.

Police set up barricades in Georgetown and parked dump trucks along the streets to prevent a vehicle from potentially plowing through crowds during the annual Halloween celebration, ABC 7 reported.

Newsham told WTOP that a truck attack on a bike path, like the incident in Manhattan, is hard to prevent.

“We do take measures when we have large gatherings in our community, but … this was a bike path. We have bike paths; we have gatherings of people, soft targets, on any given day. So I go back to my earlier point: It’s about vigilance," Newsham said.

See Related:

• NYC Terror Latest: Attacker Followed ISIS Instructions, NYPD Says
• Tribeca Terror Attack: First Victims Named
• Terror In Tribeca: 8 Dead As Truck Plows Down Bike Lane, Cops Say

U.S. Park Police said in a statement that in order to "protect the integrity" of their operations, they cannot comment about staffing levels and security techniques.

In addition to the eight fatalities, Sayfullo Saipov's Tuesday afternoon NYC attack injured a dozen others on the path near the West Side Highway between Houston and Chambers streets, just blocks north of the World Trade Center, officials said.

John Miller, the NYPD's counterterrorism commissioner, said Saipov "did this in the name of ISIS." Police found handwritten notes in Arabic indicating Saipov's connection to the terrorist group, he said.

Investigators believe Saipov, a resident of Paterson, N.J., came into Manhattan to scope out the bike path along the Hudson River at some point before the attack, said Bill Sweeney, the FBI's assistant director in charge for New York City.

The FBI and NYPD are still gathering evidence from the scene, interviewing witnesses and Saipov's associates, and conducting searches around the country, officials said. Saipov previously lived in Ohio and Florida. His wife is cooperating with authorities and had no knowledge of the attack, NBC News reported Wednesday.

"This was the worst terror attack in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said Wednesday.

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