3 police officers near Times Square injured in machete attack on New Year’s Eve: Officials

ABC News have a little more concrete information on the possible (probable) Islamic terrorist motive for this attack. 

An “unprovoked” machete attack on three New York City police officers near Times Square on New Year’s Eve is being investigated as a possible terrorist incident. The suspect is allegedly a 19-year-old man from Maine, whose online posts indicate recent Islamic radicalization, sources told ABC News.

The incident occurred just after 10 p.m. on Saturday near West 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, outside the secure area that had been set up for New Year’s Eve celebrations, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters . . . “Unprovoked, a 19-year-old male approached an officer and attempted to strike him over the head with a machete,” Sewell said. “The male then struck two additional officers in the head with the machete.” One of the officers fired their weapon, striking the suspect in the shoulder, Sewell said. The suspect was taken into custody, she said.

“No backpacks or umbrellas in Times Square. They forgot to mention machetes,” a police source told The Post.

Federal and local law enforcement investigators are combing through the suspect’s online postings, which preliminarily indicate recent extremist Islamic radicalization, the sources said.

The suspect has no prior arrests, but his recent behavior prompted a concerned family member to report him to the authorities, the sources said. The report prompted the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to look into the suspect, the law enforcement sources said. Details of what prompted the relative’s report were not immediately disclosed.

The New Year’s Eve attack is being investigated by the NYPD counterterrorism bureau in conjunction with the FBI.

Prior to New Year’s Eve, the NYPD noted in a pre-event assessment that throughout December “multiple pro-ISIS users disseminated extremist propaganda graphics broadly calling for attacks in advance of the New Year, advocating a wide range of low-tech tactics.” Knife attacks have long been promoted by Islamist terror groups.

Both federal and local law enforcement stressed at Sunday morning’s news conference the attack appeared to be an isolated incident and there was no larger threat.

The NYPD released an image of a weapon, saying it had been recovered at the scene. The weapon appeared to be a Gurkha knife, (please don’t associate the Gurkhas with this  sort of thing; they are proper soldiers of the British army, not terrorists. Terrifying maybe…but) a type of curved blade, according to ABC News contributor Darrell M. Blocker, a retired CIA operative.

The New York Post has a name for this revert 

The alleged Islamic extremist . . . has been identified as 19-year-old Trevor Bickford, multiple law enforcement sources said Sunday. Charges were pending against Bickford Sunday morning. He remained hospitalized at Bellevue, cops said.

A preliminary search by investigators turned up no criminal record for Bickford, police sources said. But police sources said the FBI in Boston has an open case on him and he is on something called a guardian list because of his radicalization. Bickford’s aunt notified authorities because he apparently made statements to her indicating a desire to go fight in Afghanistan, police sources said.