NYC truck terrorist receives 10 life sentences for 2017 attack
Eight people died after Sayfullo Saipov drove a truck through a Manhattan bike path on Oct. 31, 2017. Today (May 17), the families of those victims received some closure as the Uzbekistan-born extremist received a damning verdict.
U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick took the opportunity to lambast Saipov for his “callous and cowardly actions,” per The Associated Press. “The conduct in this case is among the worst, if not the worst I’ve ever seen,” he declared.
Saipov carried out the attack on behalf of the Islamic State, more commonly known as ISIS. A jury rejected giving him the death penalty in March, which prompted him to receive a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors went further and asked Broderick to impose eight consecutive life sentences and two concurrent life sentences on him, as well as an extra 260 years tacked on as a way of sending a strong message to others who might consider doing the same thing.
“You did not and you do not care about their pain and their suffering,” Broderick stated plainly of Saipov’s victims. The judge also noted that even the terrorist’s relatives, including his father, were ashamed of him leaving people “traumatized and forever changed.”
Some of those related to the people who died were in the courtroom and gave statements directed at the convicted killer. Frank Decadt, a father of one of the victims, told Saipov, “One day you will understand the extent of horror you have inflicted on so many people.”
Marion Van Reeth, a wheelchair-bound woman who lost her legs in the attack, said to the attacker’s face, “I will never be able to walk like you can.” She went on to ask him a pointed question to which he had no answer: “After all this time in prison, are you still convinced that your criminal acts against innocent people was the right thing?”
Gabriela Pabla Pereya, the wife of one of the fallen, delivered the shortest statement during the sentencing hearing. She called the terrorist a coward and told him, “Go kill yourself” if he wanted to receive God’s love.
Monica Missio, a mother of one of the dead, shared her loss with the perpetrator, saying her son’s death “has completely destroyed my life.”
Saipov will spend the rest of his days at the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.
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