did a syrian immigrant catch a homegrown new york city terrorist?
Fred Rogers’ mom had the best advice for him when the world gets rough. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping,” he said.
Today’s helper of the week (which if you’re into we can turn into a recurring segment) is none other than Zack Tahhan, a security camera technician who helped end a 29-hour manhunt after he spotted the suspect in the horrendous subway terrorist attack earlier this week in Brooklyn that left dozens injured.
According to Gawker, our subway hero moved to New Jersey five years ago, speaks five languages and also has a side hustle of selling juul pods in the East Village. Oh and ladies, he is very single. The New York Times reports that he’s also an “artist” which I wholeheartedly believe after watching his stirring performance during his impromptu press conference on St-Marks (I vote for all future pressers going forward to take place in front of Stromboli Pizza).
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is the guy, we need to get him.” Tahhan told the crowd. “He was walking down the street, I see the car of the police, I said, ‘Yo, this is the guy!’” When he spotted the suspect Tahhan instructed passerby to stay away from him. “People think I am crazy, like maybe I am on drugs. But I’m not. I’m fasting.”
Meanwhile, the mayor of New York (question mark?) Eric Adams (question mark?) gave a press conference that absolutely no one saw.
The NYPD, who has been rigorously roasted throughout this entire kerfuffle for numerous failures (the MTA was not left unscathed either) drove away with him in the backseat as he waved to his adoring fans like Princess Diana leaving the Royal Albert Hall after a gala performance of La Boheme.
While Tahhan is giving main character energy, others are claiming the lower manhattan manhunt was a group project. Francisco Puebla, the manager of Saifee, a hardware and garden store on first avenue (where true story I bought my first screwdriver) says that he’s the one who called the police and that Tahhan should be sharing the spotlight. “He’s all over social media,” Puebla said. “But I’m the one who took action.” Lee Vasu, a painter and gallery owner who was having lunch at Cafe Morgador nearby, also says he tipped off the police. A final nutty twist to this story is that the suspect had apparently already turned himself in and had been waiting at the McDonalds on first avenue but because the NYPD took an hour to get there (dude what) he started wandering around.
Regardless of the topsy-turvy details, this manhunt was the most New York City manhunt ever and if it was in fact a group project, I’d give all our EV heroes an A+ and give Eric Adams a stern passive aggressive performance review. What unfolded this week is proof that New York City is very much in fact not "dead” and that even when when there’s a terror attack while our blundering mayor has covid, NYC team work makes the NYC dream work.
Have a great weekend! Stay hopeful!
Liz-
"Question mark" made me laugh out loud.