NEW YORK — A rare New York capital murder trial got underway Monday, with prosecutors describing in chilling detail the 2017 terrorist attack on Manhattan’s west side bike path.
Sayfullo Saipov appeared in Manhattan federal court to fight charges he murdered eight people and injured 11 in the name of the Islamic State terrorist group when he plowed down the bike path in a truck rented from a New Jersey Home Depot.
“It was a scene of destruction and horror,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Nuo Li said in his opening argument.
“Mangled bicycles covered the path. Their riders, human beings, lay unconscious or dead. Survivors staggered around, wounded and dazed, searching for their family and friends. Screams filled the air.”
Saipov’s lawyer, Federal Defender David Patton, told the jury the trial wouldn’t be a normal one. The lawyer started his opening argument by saying his client was guilty of murder.
“There is no excuse for what he did and we will not offer one here,” Patton said. “There will be no question about who did this. Sayfullo Saipov did it. He did it because he had become immersed in a world of ISIS messaging online and in chat groups.”
Patton said his defense would focus on Saipov’s motives, which were based on delusion. He said the 34-year-old from Uzbekistan, who did not grow up religious, had become introduced to online conspiracy theories about “a global war on Islam” while working as a long-haul truck driver after immigrating to the U.S.
“He had become convinced that it was a religious obligation for him to commit a martyrdom attack to avenge the killing of Muslims around the world,” the lawyer added. “As we sit here today, he still believes that.”
Patton told the jury they would learn about Saipov’s native Uzbekistan, where his lawyers and government prosecutors traveled ahead of his trial.
The case against Saipov marks the first federal death penalty trial brought by Biden’s Justice Department in New York. Saipov would have pleaded guilty to the case had prosecutors agreed not to seek capital punishment.
It comes after lawyers spent upward of three months looking for an impartial panel of jurors without solid feelings about the case’s many layers. The trial is expected to last just as long.
On the day of the attack, Oct. 31, 2017, Saipov rented a truck from Home Depot and then headed over to the city and south on the West Side Highway, Li said.
He pulled off after approaching Pier 40 near Houston Street, speeding down the bike path where he first plowed into two families visiting from Belgium. In the second family, the prosecutor said the wife lost both legs, and the husband had to undergo brain surgery.
Li said Saipov then smashed into a group of 10 friends visiting from Argentina and cycling in pairs.
Saipov “struck and killed every single rider on the left side of the column,” said Li, adding that the surviving friends suffered severe injuries.
He then tore down the bike bath and hit a young woman who lived in New Jersey and was visiting the city for Halloween, crushing her foot and breaking her leg. In the next stretch, he killed two young men, Li said.
The chaos came to an end when a school bus blocked Saipov’s path, Li said. On board was a child who suffered severe brain damage and a woman whose spine was fractured.
Saipov’s lawyers previously said that if he is found guilty they will present “mitigating evidence” that he does not deserve the death penalty.
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