New York City Police Officer Ryan Nash spoke to reporters at the Suffolk County Police Department's Fifth Precinct on Wednesday. He was praised for stopping 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov after police say he mowed down people with a rental truck on a bike path in Manhattan on Tuesday. PHOTO: FRANK ELTMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
On Tuesday afternoon, Ryan Nash, a five-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was responding to a call about an emotionally disturbed person at Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan.
The 28-year-old officer learned of a much more dangerous situation on the street: A man on the loose, yelling and brandishing weapons, according to city officials and a police-union representative.
Officer Nash, who is assigned to the 1st Precinct, spotted the man and saw people lying in the street, police said. He then fired multiple rounds at the man.
“Dozens more lives could have been in danger,” New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We owe him a great debt of gratitude.”
Police later identified the man as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, and said he had killed eight people and injured 12 by driving a rental truck down a bike path along the Hudson River. Mr. Saipov, who had brandished paintball and pellet guns after he exited the truck, was shot in the abdomen by Officer Nash. He was taken to a hospital and remains in police custody.
Officer Nash is being praised for his quick and decisive actions, which ended a terror spree that stands as the most deadly in New York since the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, just blocks south of Tuesday’s incident.
Officer Nash “is a hero,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at Wednesday’s news conference. “He was very humble about what he did, but what he did was extraordinary.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed. “The NYPD is not just the leadership. It is the men and women who are out there everyday, who are on the first line. And I think Officer Nash really showed how important they are and how talented and how brave,” he said.
After Tuesday’s incident, Officer Nash was treated at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center for ringing in his ears and has since been released.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Officer Nash said: “I understand the importance of yesterday’s events and the role we played and I am grateful for the recognition we have received.”