Uber has confirmed that Sayfullo Saipov suspected of driving a vehicle down a bike path in Manhattan, killing eight people, was one of its drivers.
The ride-hailing service released a statement on Tuesday night saying 29-year-old Sayfullo passed a background check to become an Uber driver and had been actively driving on the platform for more than six months.
The company says it has reached out to law enforcement to provide its full assistance and is “aggressively and quickly reviewing” the suspect's history with Uber and said it was “horrified by this senseless act of violence.”
The company said it banned him from the service after the attack. It said it was in touch with the FBI and offered its assistance and that it was reviewing Saipov's driving history but found no related safety reports.
However, according to media reports and court records, Saipov has had a history of traffic violations.
In one incident, he was pulled over in central Pennsylvania for pulling a truck trailer that was longer than permitted by law and "operating unsafe equipment", as well as driving with the wrong operators license, state judicial records show.
Saipov listed both Paterson and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, as his addresses. He paid his fine by mail and did not have to appear in court.
A US official familiar with the investigation into what happened says Saipov is from Uzbekistan and came to the America in 2010.
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