More than 1,000 people gathered in lower Manhattan on Thursday evening, holding candles and quietly walking down the riverside pedestrian path — defiant just two days after the deadly terror attack there.
They marched in solidarity from Houston Street down to North Moore Street — following the path of the attack and ending just a few blocks north of where Sayfullo Saipov, 29, allegedly crashed his rented Home Depot truck into a school bus — before holding a moment of silence. Saipov is accused of speeding onto a West Side Highway bike path in TriBeCa, killing eight people and injuring 12 more.
Saipov was arraigned on federal charges Wednesday evening, including one count of providing material to support ISIS, according to criminal records. He was held without bail.
West Village resident Dan Miller, 53, said he rides the path regularly and was there about 30 minutes before the attack.
“I’m very connected to the park, I ride my bike to work every day,” he said. “You just feel fortunate and you feel more sorrow for those who lost their lives. They had no chance.
“It’s important for us to recognize the victims, especially in your own backyard,” he added.
Battery Park resident Larry Emert, 67, frequently rides the path and said it was important for him to show solidarity with those who died.
“We have to come together as a community,” Emert said. “We’re not going to let these horrible people intimidate us, we have to go on and live our lives as a community. We have to show the world that we feel pain, we do.”
State Sen. Brad Hoylman, who helped lead the march, said the bike path “was turned into an instrument of death and destruction.”
“We stand in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones, those who lost their lives,” Hoylman said. “We cannot explain it but we can be defiant in the face of such darkness.”
Council member Margaret Chin said it was important that New Yorkers care for each other.
“We will continue to stand together,” she said. “We’ve been there before after 9/11 and the community came back and we build back up lower Manhattan and we will continue to do that… We will make sure that it’s safe and it’s open to everyone.”
