New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio forgot to honor the victims of a 2017 terror attack during a memorial ceremony on Wednesday.
The mayor participated in a ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of last year's West Side Highway attack, in which authorities say suspect Sayfullo Saipov killed 8 people by driving a truck into cyclists and runners in Lower Manhattan.
The mayor did not mention the victims during his remarks at the ceremony, and only realized his mistake after someone pointed it out, the New York Post reports. He ran back to the podium to correct his error.
"I apologize. This should have been part of the gathering to read the names of the eight that we lost," de Blasio said. "So I want to right that wrong with apologies and do that now and ask everyone to bow their heads as we remember each of them."
Saipov, the suspect in the "bike path terror attack," was arrested immediately after the Oct. 31, 2017 attack. He has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys are pushing to ensure the death penalty is off the table.
Hugh Hales-Tooke, a friend of a victim's mother, criticized the mayor's misstep.
"I didn’t hear a thing about the lives, the people. Nicholas Cleves was born and bred in New York. He loved this city. His mother’s destroyed by this," Hales-Tooke said. Cleves was killed in the attack.
"I thought that was what this was about, that this is a moment where we would say … ‘You know, we care, we really do care,’ but I didn’t get the feeling. [The mayor] said this attack has been in our hearts for a year … Really, do you believe that?" Hales-Tooke continued.
In 2014, de Blasio arrived late at the anniversary of the 2001 American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Queens, missing the moment of silence held to honor the 260 people killed.