Argentine visitors describe an attack on a Hudson River bike path that killed their friends on a holiday trip to New York.

Ten Argentine school friends went to New York for a few days of fun, but only five returned home after accused terrorist Saifullo Saipov ran them over in a rented truck, witnesses at Saipov’s trial on Wednesday said.

“We celebrated 30 years since we graduated, 35 years since we knew each other, and there were several birthdays that we celebrated,” Juan Pablo Trevisan testified.

One of the birthdays was his own, Trevisan said.

Saifullo Saipov

Trevisan and his friends were biking in pairs along the bike path in Hudson River Park between Watts and Vestry streets. October 31, 2017, when the prosecutor’s office stated that Saipov accelerated in a rented truck along a bicycle path.

When Trevisan reached out and asked one of his friends to stop and wait, he heard a loud knock. “At this moment the pickup [hit] my arm and my wrist, and there was a sign that trailed off that broke off and hit my arm.”

(left) Hernan Ferrucci, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erliy, Hernan Mendoza and Diego Angelini.

Another member of the Argentine group, Martin Marro, recalled how a surviving comrade nursed him as he bled to death on the pavement.

“He said to stay calm, that he was there to take care of me, protect me and make sure I didn’t drown in my own blood,” Marro said, adding that other serious injuries he sustained included broken bones. his skull, brain and eye socket.

Trevisan and Marro told their stories on the third day of testimony and arguments in federal court in the Saipov death penalty case.

After the men spoke, federal prosecutors showed jurors photographs of the covered bodies of the victims.

Hernan Diego Mendoza, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erliy, Hernan Ferrucci and Diego Enrique Angelini were killed.

Also killed were Darren Drake, a 32-year-old New Jersey resident, and 23-year-old Nicholas Cleaves of New York.

On Tuesday, jurors heard from devastated loved ones of Belgian mother-of-two Anne-Laure Decadt, who was killed while driving with her two sisters and mum.

Anne-Laure Decadt of Belgium was killed in a terrorist attack on October 31, 2017 in Lower Manhattan that killed eight people.

Saipov, 34, pleaded not guilty to 28 counts, claiming he killed eight people and seriously injured 11 others.

The jury heard a detailed account of how he rented a Home Depot flatbed truck in Passaic, New Jersey, and drove into town, blazing a mile-long trail of horror along a bike path that runs parallel to Hudson River Park.

His rampage ended when he crashed into a school bus near Chambers Street, seriously injuring the woman and child on board, and was shot dead by a police officer.

On October 31, 2017, eight people were killed in an attack on a bike path in Hudson River Park.

Prosecutors accuse Saipov of carrying out the massacre in order to become a member of the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS.

The case seeks the death penalty. If the jury finds Saipov guilty of crimes worthy of the death penalty, they will reconvene to determine whether he is sentenced to death or sent to prison for life.

Lawyers for the Uzbek native told jurors in opening statements that he was guilty of murder, but argued that the government had the wrong motives. David Patton said that Saipov did not and had no intention of joining ISIS, but was spurred on by a delusional desire to become a martyr.

He said that Saipov became radicalized in the US during his previous job as a truck driver when he read conspiracy theories about a “global war on Islam” online.

Jury selection in the case took three months. Prosecutors expect to complete their case earlier than expected, possibly by next week.

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