Officer who halted truck rampage hailed as a modest hero

NEW YORK (AP) New York City police officer Ryan Nash was responding to a call a high school not far from the World Trade Center when someone reported an accident on the bike path outside.

Nash raced to a gruesome sight: A man in a truck had slammed into a school bus after mowing down people in a bike lane. He was waving guns around and yelling. The 28-year-old officer told him to drop the weapons and then fired once, striking the man.

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Nash stopped the attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, in his tracks, but the officer is too modest to admit he’s a hero, officials said.

“He was a hero,” said Gov. Andre Cuomo. “And the NYPD is not just the leadership, it’s the men and women who are out there every day who are on the first line, and I think officer Nash really showed how important they are and how talented and how brave.”

Saipov was actually wielding a pellet gun and a paintball gun, authorities said, but they looked like real guns. Witnesses reported the 29-year-old hollered “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great!” in Arabic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and other civic leaders commended Nash for his cool head – and said he was a humble officer who felt like he was just doing his job.

“What he did was extraordinary. It gave people such faith and such appreciation in our police force,” de Blasio said.

Nash was taken to the hospital for a ringing in the ears and met with Police Commissioner James O’Neill.

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“In a typical fashion of an NYPD cop, he thinks what he did was not an act of heroism,” O’Neill said. “He thinks it’s … why he joined the police department.”

No one answered the door at Nash’s two-story yellow Cape Cod-style home on Long Island on Wednesday. Neighbors said he moved in sometime in the past year and largely kept to himself, though he often jogged outside.

“What he did was amazing, you know, helping to keep anybody else from being killed,” said neighbor Dino Cortina. “It’s just nice to know, nice guy.”

Cortina’s wife, Margie, said Nash kept to himself but was friendly.

“We feel safer now knowing that there’s a hero, you know, in our neighborhood.”

In Tuesday’s attack, Saipov drove his speeding truck for nearly a mile along the bike path, running down cyclists and pedestrians, then crashed into a school bus, authorities said. Eight people were killed and 12 injured.

“All New Yorkers should be thankful to Ryan and his partner. They showed great courage,” O’Neill said.