New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo says the truck driver behind the deadly attack in New York City was associated with Daesh (ISIL) terror group but was "radicalized domestically."
Cuomo told CNN in an interview on Wednesday that the 29-year-old Uzbek attacker named Sayfullo Saipov was influenced by the terrorist group and its violent tactics after arriving in the United States.
"He's a depraved coward is what he is, and he was associated with ISIS, and he was radicalized domestically, and he's a depraved coward," Cuomo said.
"Our only evidence to date is that this was an isolated incident that he, himself, performed," he added.
Denouncing the deadly incident as a “cowardly act of terror,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the attack was “aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives, who had no idea what was about to hit them.”
At least eight people were killed and several others were injured after a vehicle plowed into a pedestrian and cycle path in New York City on Tuesday.
The suspect was shot by police at the end of the rampage in lower Manhattan and was taken into custody.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would renew efforts to kill a particular immigration program known as the ‘Diversity Immigrant Visa’ program, also known as the green card lottery, following the terrorist attack.
Trump also blamed Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who hails from New York, for helping pass the measure in Congress in 1990.
"The terrorist came into our country through what is called the 'Diversity Visa Lottery Program,' a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based," Trump tweeted.
Initial investigations by the police indicated that the suspect came to the US in 2010 and lived in the state of Florida.
However officials haven’t said whether he came in through the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, which covers immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the US
Trump also said he has ordered the US Department of Homeland Security to step up its "extreme vetting program" for immigrants following the attack.
The latest incident came five months after a speeding vehicle hit pedestrians on a sidewalk in New York City’s Times Square on May 18, killing at least one person and injuring 22 others.
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