ISIS note found in attacker’s truck

Investigators of a terrorist attack in New York, where a man mowed people down by driving a rented truck down a popular cycle path on Tuesday afternoon, have found a note at the scene referencing Islamic State, , the governor of New York has said.

Federal prosecutors brought terrorism charges  against the Uzbek immigrant accused in the truck rampage that left eight people dead, saying he carried out the attack in response to the Islamic State group’s online calls to action and picked Halloween because he knew more people would be out on the streets.

The charges against 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov could bring the death penalty.

Prosecutors are reported to have mentioned  in the court paper that even as he lay wounded in the hospital from police gunfire, Saipov asked to display the ISIS flag in his room and said “he felt good about what he had done,” Meanwhile, the FBI said a second Uzbek — 32-year-old Mukhammadzoir Kadirov — is wanted for questioning in connection with the bloodshed.

Saipov, accused of driving the rented Home Depot pickup truck that barreled down a bike path near the World Trade Center memorial on Tuesday, was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and committing violence and destruction of motor vehicles, resulting in death.

Prosecutors said he had 90 videos and 3,800 photos on one of his two cellphones, many of them ISIS-related pieces of propaganda, including images of prisoners being beheaded, shot or run over by a tank.

Saipov left behind knives and a note, handwritten in Arabic, that included Islamic religious references and said “it will endure” — a phrase that commonly refers to ISIS, FBI agent Amber Tyree said in court papers.

Questioned in his hospital bed, Saipov said he had been inspired by ISIS videos that he watched on his cellphone and began plotting an attack about a year ago, deciding to use a truck about two months ago, Tyree said.

As per reports, during the last few weeks, Saipov searched the internet for information on Halloween in New York City and for truck rentals, the agent said. Saipov even rented a truck on Oct. 22 to practice making turns, Tyree said.He even considered displaying ISIS flags on the truck during the attack but decided against it because he did not want to draw the attention, authorities said.John Miller, deputy New York police commissioner for intelligence, said Saipov “appears to have followed, almost exactly to a T, the instructions that ISIS has put out.”