Greenwich Village Halloween Parade Marches On After Attack

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY – The annual Halloween parade in Greenwich Village marched through Manhattan on Tuesday night as planned, just hours after a suspected terrorist attack left eight people dead in Lower Manhattan.

Law enforcement sources have named Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old originally from Uzbekistan, as the suspected attacker in the rampage. Saipov drove a rented truck onto a bike lane near the West Side Highway on Tuesday just after 3 p.m., careening into pedestrians and cyclists before crashing into a school bus, according to initial information from authorities.

Saipov got out of the truck with two fake guns before an NYPD officer shot and wounded him in the abdomen, police said. Saipov is in custody in the hospital and the investigation remains ongoing.

Police had not identified any of the people who were killed in the attack as of Tuesday night. Another 11 people were injured.

Watch: Security Tight For New York Halloween Parade

The attack, which began just after 3 p.m., happened hours before the city's annual Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, one of the country's largest Halloween celebrations which frequently draws more than a million people to the neighborhood. Authorities said the parade would move with extra security on Tuesday night.

"In less than 90 minutes that parade will kick off," NYPD Chief of Department Carlos Gomez said during a press briefing after the attack. "We will proceed with the parade and certainly we’ve added more resources, more police officers, heavy weapons teams, blocker vehicles on the street leading to the route as well as more sand truck."

On Tuesday night, revelers packed the parade route, which runs north along Sixth Avenue from Greenwich Village until Chelsea. Hundreds more watched from the sidewalk or meandered the neighborhood, stopping by Halloween parties or bars while in costume.

"Tonight we're at a Halloween parade to say you didn't win and you didn't affect us and we're out and celebrating and we're doing what New Yorkers do and we're living our lives because we're not going to allow the terrorists to win, period," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on CNN.

A dramatic increase in NYPD presence was visible throughout the city. Addditional crowd control blockades and trucks were parked near the parade route. The NYPD is also deploying heavy weapons teams at iconic locations throughout the city, although authorities said they suspected the attacker was a "lone wolf" terrorist and that they do not believe Tuesday afternoon's attack is part of a larger plot or scheme.

Washington Square Park, located just blocks from the parade route, was completely emptied except for NYPD officers guarding the area.

One Greenwich Village resident, who asked that her name not be used, took her dog Norman out for a walk through the revelers on Tuesday night. Both were wearing costumes.

"I mean, we have to keep living our lives even through the difficult times," she said.

Image credits: Ciara McCarthy / Patch