Cuomo heads to Halloween parade: ‘We’re not going to let the terrorists win’
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Tuesday night that he would participate in an annual Halloween parade in the city following a deadly truck attack earlier in the day.
“This afternoon was terrible,” Cuomo said during an appearance on CNN, hours after eight people died and several others were injured after a truck drove off the road and onto a bicycle path in lower Manhattan.
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“We’re at a Halloween parade to say, ‘You didn’t win, you didn’t affect us.’ We’re living our lives because we’re not going to let the terrorists win, period,” he said.
Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) were spotted marching in the West Village later in the evening.
Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio march in annual Halloween parade in the West Village, hours after deadly truck attack https://t.co/Btu10DnwcT pic.twitter.com/ZUcYoIlPDI
— ABC News (@ABC) October 31, 2017
Cuomo had announced that residents could expect to see a heightened security presence at high-profile areas such as airports and mass transit centers following the attack, which authorities are investigating as an act of terrorism.
As a precaution, expect to see increased security at high-profile locations.
New Yorkers should be New Yorkers, we will not be deterred.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) October 31, 2017
The suspect was identified in media reports as Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old who came to the U.S. in 2010 from Uzbekistan and lived in Florida. The suspect was reportedly heard yelling “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great” — when he exited the truck.
“Based on information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians,” de Blasio said at a news conference.
Authorities discovered notes handwritten in Arabic near the truck indicating allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to The New York Times.
“All the evidence that we have suggests that he was acting alone, the so-called lone-wolf syndrome,” Cuomo said on CNN.
President Trump called the suspect “a very sick and deranged person” on Twitter, adding in another tweet, “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!”
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