I read thru this AP article, trying to figure out the motive for this attack.
Was he a neo-Nazi? How about a White Supremacist? He must clearly be a Trump supporter of some kind, right?
You have to dig down 10 paragraphs to find out what the real motives were. If this had been one of my first three options, it would have been in the lede.
But the AP makes it a point to tell us that he was in the US legally (not that they every say anyone is here illegally; that word is forbidden under the AP Style Manual).
The 30-year-old Saipov moved to the United States legally in 2010 from Uzbekistan. He lived in Ohio and Florida and worked as a commercial truck driver before living more recently with his family in Paterson, New Jersey.
It doesn’t say he was a US citizen, just that he was in the country legally.
Court papers say that after his arrest, he told the authorities that he was inspired by ISIS videos, and that he had used a truck in the attack to inflict maximum damage against civilians. He’s pleaded not guilty.
The trial is set to begin Oct. 7, 2019. A jury, if it finds Saipov guilty, will be asked to decide in a second phase of the trial if he should be executed.