October 31, 2017
NEW YORK, NY – Governor Andrew Cuomo made the following statement, at a press conference on Tuesday evening:
First, our thoughts and prayers are with these New Yorkers who we lost today. It reminds us all how precious life is. They left the house this morning and were enjoying the beautiful west side of Manhattan on a beautiful fall day and they’re not going to be returning home. And that shock and that pain was going to be very real and our thoughts and our prayers are with all of them. Our first responders did an extraordinary job. The NYPD, the FBI, the FDNY, the New York State Police, EMS. We have the finest security on the globe and you see them in action today proved that once again.
The new terrorist tactic, which they’ve called for publicly, are these lone wolves who commit an act of terror. This is all very preliminary. It’s only been a couple of hours, but at this point there’s no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme but the actions of one individual who meant to cause pain and harm and probably death and the resulting terror, and that was the purpose. We will be vigilant. More police everywhere. You’ll see them in the airports, you’ll see them in the tunnels. It’s not because there’s any evidence of any ongoing threat or any additional threat. It is just out of vigilance and out of caution.
And the truth is New York is an international symbol of freedom and democracy. That’s what we are and we are proud of it. That also makes us a target for those people who oppose those concepts. And we’ve lived with this before, we’ve felt the pain before. We feel the pain today. But we go forward together and we go forward stronger than ever. We’re not going to let them win and if we change our lives, we contort ourselves to them, then they win and we lose. We’ll go about our business. Again, there’s no ongoing threat. There’s no evidence of that at this time. So there’s no reason to have any undue anxiety. You will see more security forces but that’s only because it’s an abundance of caution and not a symbol of anything else. And there will be continued investigation and justice will be done. But again, to those we lost, they are in our thoughts and our prayers.
To the first responders, thank you, thank you, thank you for the job you do. You put your life on the line every day. You do it better than anyone else. And to New Yorkers, be New Yorkers and live your life and don’t let them change us or deter us in any manner, shape or form. Thank you.
