So far, eight people were killed and 11 injured in the Manhattan truck attack Tuesday. Four of the victims were architects from Argentina. Hernán Ferruchi, 47; Hernán Mendoza, 47; Diego Angelini, 47; and Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, 49, were friends from the General San Martín Polytechnic Institute in Rosario who were visiting New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation from the school.
The men were in a group of eight friends who had attended the school for either architecture or business. A photo taken of the group at the Rosario airport shows them wearing t-shirts with the word “libre” (Spanish for free) written on them. They were cycling on the bike path alongside the West Side Highway when a truck ran them down. Five of the eight were killed including the four architects.
Rosario is home to the National University of Rosario, a strong architecture school, and the city has produced several important architects.
The school issued a statement on Instagram:
In the face of recent events, where a group of alumni of the Poli celebrating their 30th anniversary of graduates in New York was immersed in an episode that still has not finished knowing the details, resulting in several deaths and other injuries, we want to express our deep pain for what happened and embrace all your loved ones in this difficult moment for which no one, never, should pass. – Polytechnic Student Center
Other victims in the attack were a Belgian woman, Anne Laure Decadt, 31, and two Americans, Darren Drake, 32, of New Jersey and Nicholas Cleves, 23, of New York.
[UPDATE] One of the survivors of the attack was a professor at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, and the school has released a statement.
On Tuesday, October 31st Undergraduate Architecture Professor Guillermo Banchini and his friends were attacked by a terrorist along the bicycle path on Manhattan’s west side waterfront. Professor Banchini was unharmed, but I am deeply saddened to inform you that five of Professor Banchini’s closest friends were killed in the attack.
I have spoken to Professor Banchini, and he has been shaken by this horrible event but remains committed to Pratt and New York City. I know I speak for all of our students and professors – and particularly those who know him well – in offering our deepest sympathies for his loss as well as our strongest possible support in this difficult time. Professor Banchini has been an extraordinary teacher and colleague in the school for ten years and the entire Pratt community wishes him the best in the face of this terrible tragedy.
