Parents of NYC terror victim Darren Drake 'lived the trauma,' glad trial is over
NEW MILFORD — The parents of Darren Drake said they feel a small measure of peace now that the worst of their agony is over.
Hours after a jury spared their son’s killer from the death penalty, Barbara and James Drake expressed gratitude to federal prosecutors for doing their “very best” and relief that the monthslong court case had ended.
“We raised him as the wonderfully normal kid he was,” they said of their only child in a joint statement. “There was no hate in his life.”
Darren Drake, 32, a project manager for Moody’s Investors Service, was among eight victims fatally injured in a terror attack in lower Manhattan on Halloween in 2017.
On Monday, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision as to whether Sayfullo Saipov, now 35, should be put to death for committing that attack. He will therefore receive the mandated sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The same jury convicted Saipov, an Uzbek national from Paterson, on all 28 counts in the indictment on Jan. 26.
Prosecutors argued that Saipov’s attack was fueled by his allegiance to ISIS. He drove a rented pickup along a Hudson River path where Darren Drake was riding a bicycle.
MIKE KELLY:We can't turn NJ's 'bike-path terrorist' into a death-row martyr. Here's why
In December, President Joe Biden signed into law the Darren Drake Act. It directs the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to create best practices for car rental agencies to report suspicious behavior to law enforcement at the point of sale to stop vehicles from being used as weapons of war.
For the Drakes, the bipartisan law was a bright spot to emerge from this nightmare.
Saipov would have been the first person to be executed in New York in decades. The last to face the death penalty was Eddie Lee Mays, a convicted murderer who died in the electric chair at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining in August 1963.
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The Drakes were not in the courtroom on Monday. In fact, they did not go to any proceedings except when Barbara Drake testified on the last day that the prosecution presented its argument.
It was too painful to be there, said James Drake. “We lived the trauma,” he said in the statement. “We didn’t want to relive it during the trial. Barbara and I have been through the terror that so many relatives of victims have suffered.”
That torment was laid bare when, in a fit of frustration, Drake typed out this line: “I don’t know whether I want to cry or punch the wall.”
It came in an email as news broke about the life-in-prison verdict, and Drake said he needed more time to collect his thoughts. In a more calculated tone, he addressed his son’s killer the next day.
“In our heart of hearts,” Drake said, “we feel the convicted followed a part of Islam that the overwhelming amount of true Islam followers would never even consider.”
Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: devencentis@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Darren Drake family glad NYC bike path attack trial is over
