The recent terror attack in NYC has left many Americans puzzled. On Halloween, the perpetrator, Sayfullo Saipov, drove a rented Home Depot pick up truck into a bike lane filled with pedestrians. According to USA Today, eight people were killed and more than a dozen injured. Five of the people killed were Argentine tourists who traveled to New York for a 30-year high school reunion celebration.

Prosecutors said the attack was the culmination of a year of careful planning. Saipov’s neighbors and associates said it occurred after sudden changes in Saipov’s life as he drifted deeper into a radical ideology of violence. Mr. Saipov came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 and had a green card that allowed permanent legal residence. He had apparently lived in Paterson, N.J., and Tampa, Florida.

USA Today also explained that the “federal law enforcement officials were aware of Saipov before Tuesday. Authorities said that he had not been under investigation prior to the attack but that he had some connections to people who were subjects of a terrorism investigation.”

The NY Times explains that “investigators discovered handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck that indicated allegiance to the Islamic State, two law enforcement officials said. But investigators had not uncovered evidence of any direct or enabling ties between Mr. Saipov and ISIS and were treating the episode as a case of an ‘inspired’ attacker, two counterterrorism officials said.”  

President Trump responded to the attack on Twitter: “In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!” Mr. Trump said he was open to trying Mr. Saipov instead in military court at the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges accusing the driver in the Manhattan truck attack of carrying out a long-planned plot, spurred by Islamic State propaganda videos, to kill people celebrating Halloween. The charges describe the driver, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, as a voracious consumer and meticulous student of ISIS propaganda, and detail how he said he was spurred to attack by an ISIS video questioning the killing of Muslims in Iraq. They were also questioning Mr. Saipov’s wife, Nozima Odilova, who was cooperating, law enforcement officials said. The couple live in Paterson, N.J., and have three children.

This recent attack on NYC is awfully similar to the attacks in Barcelona, London, Berlin, Nice and other major cities around the world. ISIS is becoming more prevalent in western countries. The United States and other European countries have yet to combat these Muslim extremist groups.