Suspect in New York City Terror Attack Had Tampa Ties

TRIBECA, NY — A man identified as a suspect in Tuesday's terror attack in New York City has ties to Tampa, according to law enforcement sources. At least eight people were killed and about a dozen injured when a truck sped down a bike path near the West Side Highway, crashing into cyclists, pedestrians and a school bus.

The suspect has been identified as Sayfullo Saipov, 29. He has lived at an apartment complex off 56th Street N. in Tampa, but recently has been staying in New Jersey. Government and law enforcement officials called the attack an act of terrorism during a briefing at New York Police Department headquarters. The attack took place in the shadow of the World Trade Center memorial.

The suspect was shot in the abdomen by police and is being treated at a local hospital. He got out of surgery Tuesday night and is expected to survive.

Multiple sources say Saipov came to the U.S. in 2010 from Uzbekistan. Online records show he worked as a commercial truck driver, according to the heavy.com website. Police and other law enforcement authorities have declined to release the suspect’s name. Records show that Saipov lived in Fort Myers in 2011.

The Associated Press confirmed with sources that Saipov has a Florida license but may have been staying in New Jersey. Saipov reportedly lived in Paterson, N.J. at one point and rented the truck used in the attack from a Home Depot store in Passaic, according to reports.

On Tuesday night, police had surrounded a mosque and nearby garden apartments in Paterson in connection with the investigation, NJ.com reported.

Saipov reportedly gave police a Paterson address when he was stopped in 2012 in Palmyra, Pennsylvania and again in 2015 when police stopped him in Mount Holly Springs Borough, Pennsylvania, according to a NJ.com report.

Kobiljon Matkarov, 37, a friend of Saipov’s, met him in Florida five years ago, The New York Post reported. “He is very good guy, he is very friendly… he is like little brother… he look at me like big brother,” Matkarov told the Post. He said that Saipov had “been working for Uber and living in New Jersey as recently as this summer.”

Saipov has a Google Plus page with two followers and no photos on it. The page has check-ins at two restaurants from 2012, both in Brooklyn. One was a Russian restaurant and the other a Jewish cafe, the Google Plus page shows.

During the attack, the truck driver entered the bike path on West Street a few blocks north of Chambers Street shortly after 3 p.m. and drove down it hitting multiple people, the NYPD said.

The truck crashed and the driver got out shooting what appeared to be a gun, sources said. Law enforcement sources said the driver was yelling "Allahu Akbar!" — which means "God is great!" in Arabic. Authorities later confirmed the suspect had a pellet gun and a paintball gun that were recovered at the scene.

It is the worst terror attack in New York City since 9/11.

Read the full story on the Tribeca Patch site here.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Photo by Martin Speechley/NYPD via AP; Associated Press