US President Donald Trump has repeated his call for the death penalty against the Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people by driving a truck down a Manhattan bike path.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, was charged in federal court on Wednesday with acting in support of Islamic State by ploughing the truck down the riverside trail, which also injured a dozen people.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in its online publication on Thursday but did not provide any evidence.
Trump had suggested on Wednesday sending Saipov to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, where terrorism suspects apprehended overseas are incarcerated, but he said on Thursday doing so would be too complicated.
"Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system," Trump said on Twitter.
"There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!"
The attack on Tuesday was the deadliest act of suspected terrorism to strike New York City since September 11, 2001
Prosecutors say Saipov told investigators he had been inspired by watching Islamic State videos, felt good about what he had done and asked to display the militant group's flag in his hospital room.
Trump also repeated his call on Thursday for Congress to end the Diversity Immigrant Visa program under which Saipov entered the US in 2010, saying on Twitter: "We need to make AMERICA SAFE!"
One of the two criminal counts Saipov faces carries the death penalty if the government chooses to seek it.
But Trump's tweets calling for the death penalty could allowing Saipov's lawyers to argue the president had prejudiced potential jurors, said James Acker, a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York in Albany.
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