Novartis Scientist Wounded in NYC Terrorist Attack That Killed Eight People

A Novartis scientist was among the nearly one dozen people injured in a terrorist attack on Oct. 31 in downtown New York City.

Martin Marro, a team leader at the Cambridge, Mass.-based Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, was among those hurt in the truck attack that killed eight and hurt nearly a dozen people. A spokesperson for the NIBR told the Boston Business Journal that Marro was hospitalized following the attack. The spokesperson told the Journal that the company was providing "full support" to Marro and his family.

"Our thoughts are with him, his family and others affected by this tragedy," the spokesperson said.

Originally from Argentina, Marro had gone to New York to pick up some friends who recently had flown into the United States from his home country, Wicked Local Newton reported. Those four Argentines were among those killed in the attack, according to the report.

CNN said the Argentine group was celebrating the 30th anniversary of graduates of the Polytechnic School in their hometown. The Argentine foreign ministry identified the dead Argentines as Ariel Erlij, Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, and Hernan Ferruchi.

Marro has been with Novartis since 2006. He was initially based in the United Kingdom, but came to the company’s Cambridge facility in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. Since moving to the United States, Marro has supported local Republican politics. Tom Mountain, a local GOP official in the Newton, Mass. area, told the Chicago Tribune that Marro is "one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet." Marro is heavily involved and "intertwined" with the local Argentine community in the Boston area, Mountain said.

In addition to the Argentines, a Belgian citizen was also identified among the dead. Two others killed in the attack have not yet been identified, according to this morning’s report.

The Halloween attack saw an Uzbekistan-native drive a rented pickup truck down a bicycle path near the World Trade Center. The suspected attacker, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, has been in the United States since 2010. After driving his rented truck through a crowd of people, he crashed into a school bus. Saipov then leaped from the truck carrying a pellet gun and paintball gun. He was shot by New York police and taken into custody. Authorities said Saipov claimed to have made the attack on behalf of Isis, the terror group battling U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East.