Who Is Sayfullo Saipov? NYC West Side Highway Suspect Hospitalized After Attack

UPDATE 1.10 a.m. EDT — Uber confirmed late Tuesday night that Saipov was a driver with the ride-sharing service. A statement by the company said he had passed a background check and had been driving on the platform for more than six months.

Saipov has since been banned from the Uber app. It added that they had reached out to law enforcement to provide details on the suspect and was "aggressively and quickly reviewing" his history with Uber.

UPDATE: 12.55 a.m EDT — CNN reported that Saipov was out of surgery and was in a critical condition in the hospital. Citing a law enforcement official, they stated authorities were able to talk to him before the surgery, but it was not known if Saipov told them anything.

Original Story:

Sayfullo Saipov, 29, was identified as the killer in the deadly West Side Highway attack in New York City Monday, which left at least eight people dead and 15 people hospitalized.

While stating that he was being treated at a medical center at the time of a 5:15 p.m. press conference, police did not immediately reveal what hospital he was being treated at.

The gunman rammed his vehicle down the street near West Street and Chambers Street near Stuyvesant High School, the New York Times reported, where he plowed down six people.

The attack was deemed terrorism by Mayor Bill de Blasio in a press conference Halloween night. The incident was called a “particularly cowardly act of terror” by the mayor, who added that “New Yorkers are resilient.”

President Donald Trump responded to the attack, tweeting: “In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also issued a statement, saying: “To New Yorkers: be New Yorkers, live your life, and don't let them change us or deter us in any way, manner, shape, or form.”

Saipov is said to be from Tampa, Florida. He is also reported to have held residence in Ohio and Patterson, New Jersey. Both ABC and NBC report that he is believed to have been from Uzbekistan.

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The Guardian quoted Dilfuza Iskhakova, who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio saying that Saipov had stayed with her for several months almost six years ago after he came from Uzbekistan.
“He seemed like a nice guy, but he didn’t talk much,” Iskhakova said. “He only went to work and came back. He used to work at a warehouse.”

She added that Saipov had been applying for a green card during the time she knew him. The report also said Saipov had registered two businesses while living in Ohio and the first, Sayf Motors Inc, used Iskhakova’s address while the second, Bright Auto LLC, used an address near Cleveland.

A marriage license registered in Summit County, Ohio, reportedly showed a Sayfulloh Saipov marrying 19-year-old Nozima Odilova in 2013. The birthplace of both was given as Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Iskhakova further said she thought Saipov had a wife and two children and that he had moved from Ohio to Florida.