Eight people were killed when a man drove 20 blocks down a bike path beside the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon before he crashed his pickup truck, jumped out with fake guns and was shot by a police officer, the authorities said.
Federal authorities were treating the incident as a terrorist attack and were taking the lead in the investigation, a senior law enforcement official said. Two law enforcement officials said that after the attacker got out of the truck, he was heard yelling, “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference, “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.”
Read it all and join us in praying tonight for New York City.
A man drove 20 blocks down a bike path, crashed, jumped out with fake guns and was shot by police, authorities said https://t.co/2ipdU5x7No
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 31, 2017
For those who died, rest in peace. For the injured, may they be healed.
I have often read the translation of “Allahu akbar” as “God is great.” That’s not really it, though. “Great” would be “kebir.” “Akbar” is the comparative, so the phrase is, “Allah is supreme” or “Allah is the greatest.” It’s a jihadi war-cry.