Darren Drake, killed in 2017 West Side bike path terror attack, honored in New Jersey
NEW MILFORD, N.J. -- A victim of the 2017 Halloween West Side terror attack was honored Sunday in New Jersey.
The ceremony took place as the man convicted in the attack, Sayfullo Saipov, awaits a verdict in the death penalty phase of his trial.
In his 20s, Darren Drake served as New Milford School Board president. He went to Rutgers undergrad and got his master's at Fairleigh Dickinson.
He loved education.
"He always thought there was not enough opportunity for his classmates that didn't want to go to college, but wanted to go to a trade school to be an electrician, be a plumber, a cosmetologist," said Barbara Drake, Darren's mother.
Darren Drake was pursuing a second master's when he was killed at the age of 32. The only child of Barbara and Jimmy Drake, they started the Darren Drake Foundation to award scholarships to high school students looking to attend a trade school.
"It's something he was very passionate about," Barbara Drake said.
On Sunday, they honored those helping the foundation and also acknowledged the recent signing of the bipartisan Darren Drake Act into law.
"We're gonna make sure that when a terrorist tries to rent a truck or vehicle and use it as a terror truck, they'll get the kind of check that you do when you go on an airplane," Rep. Josh Gottheimer said.
On Halloween in 2017, 32-year-old Darren Drake and seven other people were murdered and a dozen others were injured when Saipov drove a rental truck onto the West Side bike path in Manhattan, striking bicyclists in the name of ISIS.
Darren Drake, a project manager for Moody's Analytics, was biking between meetings.
"We don't look forward to things anymore. We just go through the existence of living," Barbara Drake said.
A jury will resume deliberations Monday to decide whether Saipov will receive a sentence of death or life in prison without release after finding him guilty in January.
"Whatever the sentencing is, it is. Justice will prevail," Barbara Drake said.
"So many times I thought about this. I just want to see them come to a decision. Leave it up to those people that are making the decision to determine what happens, you know, not me," Jimmy Drake said. "In my heart and soul, there is no closure."
The jury got the case Wednesday and deliberated for over two hours, but had to re-start deliberations on Thursday when a juror had a family emergency and couldn't return. An alternate juror took his place. There was no court Friday.
CBS2 will be back at federal court on Monday and will provide updates.
