A man who survived a terrorist attack that killed five of his friends in New York City back in 2017 is speaking out about that fateful day that turned a celebration into tragedy.
In October of that year, Martin Marro and nine friends from Argentina were in Manhattan for their high school 30th reunion.
"We wanted to celebrate as something as beautiful as friendship over the years, long-lasting friendship through the years," Marro told NBC6.
The 10 were on bicycles when an attacker used a U-Haul truck as his weapon and targeted the group. Two American men and a Belgian woman were killed alongside five of Marro's friends. The convicted terrorist received eight life sentences.
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"The truck ran over us and killed five of my friends," Marro said. "We were biking in five rows of two and were just chit-chatting and having conversations about our families, and it was a beautiful sunny day, and everyone in the Hudson side survived and everyone on the bike center got killed."
Marro said it’s been difficult to overcome the grief of surviving the largest attack in the city since 9/11. The concept of intentionally taking someone’s life, let alone lives, is a concept foreign to him.
"We all had a good life, happy people trying to do good things for others," he said. "It is hard. In my case, I'm a scientist, my job is to discover drugs to save the life of people. The concept of causing death is hard to understand for me because I would like to help people to extend their lives."
And yet Marro said forgiveness is always a possibility.
"Unfortunately when we attended the concluding statements when the judge read the verdict, we did not see any remorse. He’s convinced that what he did is the right thing to do — still making propaganda, the courtroom will be filled with tears and blood. He's convinced he did the right thing. So if he’s ready to ask for forgiveness, I'll be happy to forgive him."
Marro, who lives in the U.S., met his friends at the airport when they arrived from his hometown of Rosario, Argentina.
He posed with his friends with t-shirts that read "LIBRE," or "free" — an inside joke for the wives who had agreed to let them go.
"T-shirts produced for the group started as a joke because we spent a week free of our families in a healthy way. A picture.
Cellphone video also shows the friends on their bikes just minutes before the attack.
In his home in Boston, Marro keeps the memory of his friends alive with special pictures of better days.
"We all dreamt of staying together for a few more decades and continue to celebrate the friendship, definitely, could not be completed, what stays in the souls and minds is the beautiful friendship we had together," he said. "I feel privileged and lucky that I met friends, learned from all of them, a part of who I am is because of those friendships."
Meanwhile, in his native Rosario, there is a memorial that keeps the group’s memory alive.
"We are one family, and it’s beautiful to see the unity and the strength and the love, the resilience, the bravery, the courage that all these families have, and I keep learning from them," Marro said.
Back home, the survivors and victims’ families are working so that this doesn’t happen again and live by the motto “May love overcome hate.”
"'Que el amore vencera el odio,' 'may love overcome hatred,' that’s the phrase that represents us," Marro said. "We want to love and good human values and faith, unity to prevail over hatred."
Marro is pushing for leaders to provide an international organization that provides financial and moral support for victims of terrorism.
