Young American accused of assaulting police officers with a machete near Times Square on New Year’s Eve it was motivated by Islamic extremismNew York City prosecutors said Wednesday.
Trevor Bickford, 19, is accused of attack three NYPD officers with a machete at around 10pm, near Times Square, New York, where thousands of people were celebrating New Year’s Eve.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office argued in state court that the youth from a coastal town in the state of Maine, “He went to New York to kill people and carry out a jihadist attack.” He was jailed after being indicted on assault and attempted murder charges.
The attacker hit two officers on the head and soon after another officer used his service weapon to wound him in the shoulder. “I went to him and hit him on the head with a kukri (big Nepalese knife). I charged another officer but dropped my knife and tried to grab the police officer’s gun but couldn’t,” Bickford told police after being taken into custody.
The assistant prosecutor in the case, Lucy Nicholas, Bickford says “he specifically traveled to New York with the intent of killing government employees.” The attacker had also said that “all government officials have been targeted as they cannot be true Muslims because the US government supports Israel.”
The individual, according to the prosecutors’ complaint, before the attack he shouted “Allahu Akbar”, a Muslim religious expression. According to CNN, Bickford kept a diary in which he expressed a desire to join the Afghan Taliban and die a martyr.
The FBI questioned him in mid-December after one of his relatives alerted the office about his jihadist statements, NBC News reported.
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