A 2016 Skidmore College alumnus was among the eight people killed in yesterday's truck terror attack in New York City.

Skidmore officials confirmed to Spectrum News that 23-year-old Nicholas Cleves was living and working in New York City as a software engineer, analyst and web developer.

The college released a statement which reads in part, "At moments such as these, we realize anew how powerless are our words in the face of profound grief. Even so, we reach out to offer our thoughts and prayers, along with the hope that knowing that others are also touched by this loss may provide at least some small measure of comfort."

 

 

Federal prosecutors have filed terror charges against the man accused of carrying out the deadly attack. Sayfullo Saipov, 29, is accused of driving a rental truck into a crowd of pedestrians and bicyclists before crashing into a school bus near a high school in Lower Manhattan. He was was never the subject of any prior NYPD or FBI investigation.

Saipov was shot in the abdomen by Officer Ryan Nash, a five-year veteran of the NYPD, after jumping out of the truck with what turned out to be a paint ball gun and a BB gun and shouting "God is great'' in Arabic. Police say they also found notes in the truck used in the attack written in Arabic that read "ISIS will endure forever." 

At a press conference Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said of the eight people killed, two are from the U.S., five are from Argentina, and one from Belgium.

Governor Andrew Cuomo called it a "lone wolf'' attack and said there was no evidence to suggest it was part of a wider plot.

On Twitter, President Trump railed against ISIS, tweeting "We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!''