An alleged lone wolf “Islamic extremist” attacked multiple NYPD officers with a machete on New Year’s Eve near the site of the famous Ball Drop in Times Square. One of the officers was a rookie cop who was working his first shift after graduating the Academy on Friday.
Watch as Police Commissioner Sewell & Mayor Adams provide an update on a police involved incident in Manhattan. https://t.co/ha11b02Fvq
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 1, 2023
The terrorist, identified as 19-year-old Trevor Bickford of Wells, Maine, attacked three police officers at around 10 pm as they were working the holiday detail in Times Square. The attack took place just outside of the high-security zone where thousands of revelers were screened for weapons as they prepared to ring in 2023.
One of the officers was slashed in the head; a second officer suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Both were taken to the city’s Bellevue Hospital. A third officer was taken to Mt. Sinai West medical center with unknown injuries.
One of the officers shot Bickford in the shoulder after he attacked them on Eighth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Street, sources said.
Bickford had already appeared on an FBI watch list, law enforcement sources told reporters, after a relative of the man alerted law enforcement about pro-jihadist views he expressed. Federal officials interviewed the suspect in December shortly after they were alerted.
He became a radicalized Muslim in recent years, the sources said, and planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside Islamic terrorists there. He packed camping gear, a diary and a will before traveling to New York City on an Amtrak train prior to the attacks.
Bickford allegedly made a pro-jihadi statement from his hospital bed, New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewall told reporters.
Charges are pending.
