The F.B.I., on Wednesday, questioned a second Uzbek man in connection with Tuesday’s deadly truck attack on a bike lane along the West Side Highway in New York City. Law enforcement officials issued an alert seeking help from the public in locating 32-year-old Mukhammadzoir Kadirov for questioning, but he was later found by authorities. “We are no longer seeking that individual, Assistant FBI Director Bill Sweeney said. “We believed he had information related to yesterday, but we are not looking for that individual any longer.”
It’s not yet clear the connection between Kadirov and the driver of the truck Sayfullo Saipov, other than their place of birth. Saipov, meanwhile, was served federal terrorism charges Wednesday for the attack authorities say he had been planning for more than a year. “The federal charges in civilian court, which detail how Mr. Saipov said he drew inspiration from ISIS videos that questioned the killing of Muslims in Iraq, contradicted calls from President Trump to try Mr. Saipov in military court at the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,” the New York Times reports. “The criminal complaint against Mr. Saipov said he began planning the attack a year ago and decided to use a truck about two months ago. They said he chose Halloween for the attack because he believed there would be more people on the street.”
According to law enforcement officials, Saipov was never a formal target of a New York Police Department or F.B.I. investigation, but that he appeared to have connections to other subjects of terrorism investigations and was on the radar more generally of federal authorities.
