The 19-year-old suspect in the New Year's Eve attack on three NYPD officers near Times Square had been interviewed by federal investigators over pro-jihadi declarations prior to his alleged machete ambush, law enforcement sources said.
Trevor Bickford, the alleged attacker from Wells, Maine, was in a federal law enforcement database after a relative of the man alerted law enforcement about pro-jihadist views expressed by the 19-year-old, multiple police officials said. Federal officials interviewed the man in December shortly after being alerted, the sources added.
Bickford allegedly took an Amtrak train to new York City in the days leading up to Saturday night's possible terror act that hospitalized three police officers.
Police have said the suspect allegedly approached the officers on Manhattan's 8th Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets armed with a large knife he used to swing at three different officers, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at an overnight press conference.
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Sewell said the man dealt two of the officers blows to the head, giving an 8-year veteran a head laceration and a recent police academy graduate a skull fracture. All three NYPD members released from the hospital the following morning.
Mayor Eric Adams said that he had spoken to one of the wounded officers. “He understood that his role saved lives of New Yorkers today,” Adams said at the press conference.
The alleged machete man was also taken to a Manhattan hospital after being shot in the shoulder by one of the officers involved in the incident, Sewell said. He allegedly made a pro-jihadi statement from his hospital bed.
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Officials said the man had personal writings in his backpack that also included terrorist-related propaganda as well as a pocketknife and approximately $200 in cash.
The suspect wrote in a diary whom he wanted to leave belongs to and where he wanted to be buried, officials said. He also allegedly wrote about his family, including regrets for disappointing his mom and hopes his brother would join his radical ideology.
"We believe this was a sole individual at this time, there's nothing to suggest otherwise," said Mike Driscoll, assistant director in charge of the New York FBI Field Office. The FBI's Joint Terrorism task Force is also investigating.
This incident follows other lone wolf terror-type attacks on NYPD officers. In 2014, a radicalized man attacked three officers with a hatchet without warning in Queens. And two years ago, a man stabbed a Brooklyn officer in the neck before stealing his gun and using it to fire at responding officers in another jihadist-inspired lone wolf attack.
Adams commended the work of the officers and the police department's security planning that went into securing the area around Times Square, planning he said saved lives.
"It is why the commissioner and her team ensures that we properly screen everyone entering the area where the viewing is actually taking place," Adams said.
The violent attack and gunfire sparked brief chaos amid revelers lined up along 8th Avenue. The New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square were not impacted.
