A 19-year-old American was charged Monday with the “attempted murder of an officer,” New York police said. He had attacked police officers with machetes on New Year’s Eve in Manhattan.
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The man is accused of assaulting three officers just outside the security zone of Times Square, where New Yorkers gather by the thousands on New Year’s Eve.
He hit two officers on the head, without endangering their lives, before being immobilized by another officer who used his service weapon, wounding him in the shoulder.
The young man is from Wells, a town in northeastern Maine, according to the New York police, which did not provide further details at this stage.
According to US media, he recently showed signs of Islamist radicalization and is suspected of having wanted to carry out a suicide bombing.
Personal diary
According to anonymous sources cited by CNN, he carried a diary with him in which he expressed his desire to join the ranks of the Afghan Taliban and die a martyr.
The New York Times specifies that he had written a farewell letter to his mother in this notebook.
Federal police had questioned him in mid-December after being told by a relative of jihadist remarks and were monitoring his Internet activities, officers told NBC on condition of anonymity.
The FBI’s Counterterrorism Unit is participating in the investigation, New York Police Chief Keechant Sewell confirmed at a news conference Sunday, saying no more.
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