NEW YORK (WHDH) — Two men who witnessed the deadly terror attack in New York City Tuesday spoke about what they saw during the terrifying moments.
“I just went there to see what happened. Then I saw a guy with two guns, he’s just running in the middle of the street,” said Tawhid Kabir, who filmed the suspect running through a busy Manhattan intersection.
The suspect, identified by sources as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, plowed into bicyclists and pedestrians on a bike path in Lower Manhattan before crashing his rental pickup truck into a school bus. Kabir said he then got out of the truck.
“He was running like there was no direction, he was just running here and here,” Kabir said. “And there was another guy who was just chasing him.”
Police said the weapons Saipov was holding turned out to be pellet and paintball guns.
Tabir said he then heard five or six gunshots but did not see what happened because he was scared and trying to hide. The gunfire came from a police officer who shot Saipov before he was taken into custody.
Babatunde Ogunniyi, a student at Borough of Manhattan Community College, said he witnessed the attack as he was sitting on a pier near his school. He said at first, he thought someone had lost control of their car.
“He jumped onto that little bike lane and hit one person and then another person,” said Ogunniyi. He said the car must have been going around 70 miles an hour before it hit and curb and “went airborne.”
Ogunniyi said Saipov smashed into a school bus before taking off. He said he saw first responders cut the mangled bus open to rescue the people inside.
“It was just surreal. Kind of didn’t make sense. For one, obviously, you don’t see why someone would want to drive and harm civilians, especially in a bike lane.”
Ogunniyi said his school was not put on lockdown but students were kept away from the area.
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