PLATTE COUNTY, Mo. — The investigation continues into the deadliest attack in New York City since 9/11.
Law enforcement is now tracking down every move 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov made ever since he stepped foot in the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010.
“It appears that Mr. Saipov had been planning this for a number of weeks,” NYPD Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller said in a news conference Wednesday morning.
Overnight, police searched Saipov’s current home in northern New Jersey as investigators looked into his other run-ins with the law.
“What we are looking for is, how has he touched the subjects of other investigations,” Miller said.
On Wednesday 41 Action News obtained a copy of the ticket a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper gave Saipov on the morning of Dec. 16, 2015, at a weigh station north of Tracy.
During a routine inspection, the trooper found several cracks along the brake lining on Saipov’s trailer from Florida.
Saipov had 30 days to pay a fine of $129.50 by mail or notify the Fine Collection Center in Jefferson City that he wished to plead not guilty.
“These sorts of incidents are very common,” Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not unusual for my office itself to prosecute upon thousands of tickets and many of those tickets never make it to our office because people merely pay the fine.”
Saipov ignored it, so the ticket was forwarded to the Platte County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. In April 2016, the equipment violation ticket was filed in Platte County Circuit Court, a warrant was issued for Saipov, and the court set bond at $200.
In October 2016, Saipov was arrested in St. Charles County, Missouri on the Platte County warrant. Saipov paid the $200 bond and was supposed to appear in court in Platte County the following month.
Saipov never did, so the bond went to pay the ticket and court fees.
“And just [Tuesday] afternoon I was watching the horrible acts in New York City unfold and then later in the day we learned that we had in fact prosecuted this man for obvious a minor traffic violation but it absolutely came as a surprise,” Zahnd said.
