On Halloween afternoon, October 31, 2017, Ann-Laure Decadt, 31, was enjoying what was meant to be an ordinary, happy stretch of sightseeing in New York City—one of those bright, breezy days when the Hudson River bike path feels like a moving postcard. Visiting from Belgium with her mother and two sisters, she rented a bicycle and set out along the popular route in lower Manhattan.
For a moment, it was simply family togetherness on wheels: the rhythm of tires on pavement, the city’s hum, the river to one side, the skyline to the other.
Then, with almost no warning, the calm was torn open. A rental truck barreled onto the bike path and began striking people in its way, turning a place designed for leisure and safety into a corridor of panic. Investigators later described the vehicle as a heavy, weaponized force—thousands of pounds moving with intent—driving along the path near the West Side Highway and the World Trade Center area, cutting into cyclists and pedestrians in a matter of moments. Decadt was hit from behind during that rampage as her family rode nearby, close enough to witness the catastrophe unfold in front of them.
The attack only ended after the truck crashed into a small school bus, a violent stop that did nothing to soften what had already happened. The driver, Sayfullo Saipov, was confronted by police and shot after the crash; authorities said he was taken into custody at the scene and rushed to a hospital. In the chaos that followed—sirens, scattered bicycles, people running and shouting—eight lives were gone, and many others were left with severe injuries that would reshape the rest of their days.
As the investigation came into focus, officials said the attack was carried out in the name of ISIS. Prosecutors later detailed a story of preparation and fixation: months of planning, practice runs with a truck to learn how to maneuver it into as many people as possible, and a note brought along with ISIS symbolism and slogans. While in custody at the hospital, authorities said Saipov spoke with FBI agents about doing it in response to ISIS calls, described himself as proud, and even sought to display an ISIS flag—details that painted the violence not as a sudden impulse, but as a calculated act meant to terrorize.
The case moved through federal court for years, with the crime framed not only as mass murder, but as terrorism tied to a racketeering enterprise. A jury convicted Saipov on all 28 counts on January 26, 2023, including murder and attempted murder for the purpose of gaining entrance to ISIS as a racketeering enterprise, providing material support to ISIS resulting in death, and destruction of a motor vehicle resulting in death. During the penalty phase, prosecutors pursued a death sentence, while the defense did not dispute that Saipov committed the attack but fought over legal theories tied to the racketeering charges.
In the end, the death penalty did not happen. On March 13, 2023, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on execution, which triggered a mandatory life sentence. On May 17, 2023, a federal judge imposed eight consecutive life sentences plus an additional 260 years in prison, with two more life terms running concurrently—an arithmetic of punishment meant to match the scale of loss and the number of people targeted. In court, victims and relatives described enduring wounds—physical, psychological, and permanent—speaking into a room where the ordinary language of grief had to stretch to fit an event that never should have been possible on an afternoon bike ride.
