New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell during a news conference about the December 31 attack.AP
Just two hours before midnight on Saturday, a man armed with a machete attacked three police officers near Times Square, which was set to experience its first full-capacity New Year’s Eve since 2019. The attacker, a 19-year-old from Maine, is believed to be an Islamic radical who traveled to the Big Apple for the purpose of the attack, according to a senior police official.
The suspect, Trevor Bickford, was charged this Monday on two counts of attempted murder of two police officers and two others of attempted assault, the body announced today. The young man could also face terrorism charges, according to the police source, who declined to be identified because it is an ongoing investigation.
Times Square, the traditional place to celebrate the end of the year, was packed this Saturday with onlookers ready to enjoy the first big New Year’s Eve since the pandemic, but also with police officers, with a device of thousands of agents. Just after 10 p.m. and while the six-hour show of live performances was going on, Bickford attacked two officers with a machete in the head and attempted a third, a young man fresh from the academy who managed to one-shot him neutralize the shoulder. The event happened a few blocks from the square, right where the security perimeter of the celebrations ended.
The three police officers were taken to the hospital with various injuries including lacerations; One of them is the only one still in the hospital with a fractured skull. The detainee remains in police custody at the hospital, also in stable condition.
Attorneys for the Southern Borough of New York and the Borough of Manhattan are considering indicting him on federal, state, or both charges. In the absence of official confirmation of the alleged terrorist motivation from the authorities, local media have released more details about the suspect’s identity. According to CNN, Bickford kept a diary in which he expressed his desire to join the Taliban in Afghanistan and be martyred.
The weapon Trevor Bickford used during the attack.AP
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A farewell letter was found in the aforementioned newspaper, in which the young man wrote to his mother: “I am very afraid that you will not repent before Allah, and therefore I keep the hope in my heart that part of you will be like that believes you can be removed from the fires of hell.” There were also references in the diary to his brother, a military man, as if he had donned the enemy’s uniform, according to the senior police official quoted by the New York Times.
The first details about Bickford’s life were revealed by the media. A native of Wells, a Maine town of 11,000, he was a remarkable student and a precocious artist, but his achievements, including in sports, were cut short after his father’s death of an overdose a few years ago, when his drift began. He converted to Islam sometime in the last year and a half, and as a devout Muslim, he often visited mosques around his home while devouring readings and videos about the religion. Persecution of Muslims abroad, such as the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and the Uyghurs in China, fueled their desire to join global jihad.
The New York Post, citing law enforcement sources, reports that Bickford was placed on an FBI watch list of potential terrorists after his mother and aunt alerted federal agencies that the suspect had expressed intentions to work with Islamist militants in Afghanistan battle. After the family alarm, he gave up his intention to travel abroad and chose to travel within the country. He left Maine in early December with several thousand dollars in cash, a credit card and the machete. He arrived in New York by train last Thursday. Authorities are now tracing all of his fingerprints as well as family address.
The incident went virtually unnoticed by public opinion amid the celebrations; Times Square also has no shortage of violent crime-related events. But as the hours went by, the true dimension of what happened on Saturday has alarmed authorities. Especially after it was revealed that although the FBI’s internal terrorism alert level is significantly higher than the potential jihad risk, the New York City Police Department, the largest in the country with 35,000 agents, on Friday issued an order alert to police, according to CNN is being warned across the country of possible Islamist attacks, particularly those by lone fighters inspired by the Islamic State.
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