Trump urges death penalty for New York attacker

President Donald Trump on Thursday urged federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Sayfullo Saipov, the 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant who killed eight people and wounded 12 others after driving onto a busy New York City bike path Tuesday. Investigators believe Saipov began planning some kind of attack a year ago but didn’t settle on using a truck until a few months ago. He allegedly chose Halloween because he believed more people would be on the streets. He rented a truck ahead of time to practice driving and turning it, and he initially planned to drive all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, mowing down pedestrians as he went. According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Saipov asked to have the Islamic State terror group’s flag displayed in his hospital room, telling officials “he felt good about what he had done.” In the truck, investigators found a note saying, “Islamic Supplication. It will endure.” That phrase commonly refers to ISIS, and the note details Saipov’s motivation, New York City Police Department Intelligence and Counterterrorism head John Miller told CBS This Morning: “He was following the ISIS instructions which says if you’re going to do this you need to claim credit for ISIS or we won’t know you’re one of us and to yell it out, post it online, or their magazine even suggested leaving leaflets and this seems to touch on that last piece.”