The New York police officer who shot and apprehended the suspect in Tuesday’s terrorist attack has been identified as Ryan Nash, a law enforcement source tells CNN.
Nash, 28, works in the NYPD’s 1st precinct, and joined the department in 2012. Nash is now part of the investigation, which is being conducted jointly by the NYPD and the FBI.
Around 3:05 pm, the suspect mounted a curb and drove his rented truck down a cycle lane parallel to the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, hitting cyclists and pedestrians.
Eight people were killed and almost a dozen injured before the suspect, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, crashed the truck into a school bus. He then exited the vehicle while displaying imitation firearms before Nash shot and wounded him.
Quick actions
Shortly after Saipov crashed into the bus, Nash, a uniformed officer, “confronted the subject and shot him in the abdomen,” Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said during a press conference following the attack.
A pellet gun and a paintball gun were recovered from the scene, officials said.
Saipov, an Uzbek national, was wounded and transported to a local hospital. He is now out of surgery, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Officers were able to talk to him before the surgery, the source said. It is unclear if he told them anything.
O’Neill was quick to praise Nash, who he said “stopped the carnage” in lower Manhattan.
“I want to commend the response of our NYPD officer that was on post near the location who stopped the carnage moments after it began,” he said.
He also praised the work of first responders, “including the Fire Department and the EMS personnel surely helped save additional lives.”
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, at the same press event, also thanked “everyone at the NYPD … starting with the officer who stopped this tragedy from continuing.”
De Blasio called the incident an “act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them.”