Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses says he has no information that any Trinidadian was killed or injured in the terror attack in Manhattan on Tuesday which left eight people dead.
Moses spoke briefly with the T&T Guardian yesterday assuring that there had been no report of any T&T national affected by the attack, when 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, identified as an illegal immigrant from Uzebekistan, drove a rental truck into a pedestrian and bike path along the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan in New York City on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 in the deadliest terror attack on the city since 9/11.
The Office of the Attorney General expressed “absolute shock and dismay at the horrific attack on innocent civilians,” assuring that Trinidad and Tobago “remains steadfast in the fight against global terror.”
The AG’s Office in an early morning statement said, “Our hearts go out to the victims of the attack, their families and those whose lives will forever be affected by this terrible tragedy. No personal grievance, political agenda or ideological goal can ever justify such a callous and cowardly act.”
It noted that T&T citizens “share a special sense of kinship with the people of New York, which is home to many people of Trinidad and Tobago origin,” and assured that “our friends in New York and the wider United States can also count on the support of the people of Trinidad and Tobago in this difficult time,” and promised to continue to work with US counterparts “to eliminate the threats of terrorism and terrorist financing.”
The statement said attacks such as these are “ultimately aimed at changing our way of life,” but the effect is quite the opposite, and instead strengthens “our resolve and the commitment to the values and ideals shared by our two peoples.”
Saipov was shot in the abdomen by a New York City police officer at the scene, and is currently in custody at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. Police have interviewed him and are currently waiting for an update on his condition.
Reports from New York said there was no evidence that Saipov had direct connections to or support from terrorist groups, but investigators have determined that he had been planning the attack for a number of weeks.
John Miller the New York Deputy Police Commissioner for intelligence and counter-terrorism said Saipov did this “in the name of ISIS. He appears to have followed, almost exactly to a T, the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before with instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack.”