Suspect charged in New Year's Eve machete attack on police officers near Times Square - ABC News

The 19-year-old accused of attacking 3 constabulary officers with a machete connected New Year's Eve adjacent Times Square has been charged with 2 counts of attempted execution of a constabulary serviceman and 2 counts of attempted assault.

Trevor Bickford, from Wells, Maine, attacked the officers unprovoked aft taking a bid to the metropolis connected Dec. 29. His parent and aunt precocious notified instrumentality enforcement astir their concerns helium was gravitating toward unsafe Islamist ideologies, instrumentality enforcement sources said.

Police recovered the suspect's backpack astatine the scene, which contained a diary, sources said.

The last diary introduction indicated the fishy thought helium would dice successful the onslaught and asked for burial according to Islamic tradition, the sources said.

Bickford has made statements to investigators that fortify the content the onslaught was motivated by Islamic extremism, instrumentality enforcement sources told ABC News.

Bickford told constabulary helium took a sip of h2o and shouted "Allahu Akhbar" earlier attacking the officers with a knife, sources said.

The weapon was purchased successful Maine, wherever Bickford besides withdrew thousands of dollars successful currency astatine immoderate constituent earlier taking Amtrak to New York. The withdrawal and the acquisition suggest premeditation, sources said.

Upon accomplishment successful New York, the fishy made a ample currency donation to the Bowery Mission, which investigators judge was meant to fulfill a Muslim tenet of charity.

From there, it's believed Bickford slept successful a parkland successful Forest Park, Queens. Police recovered a sleeping container linked to the suspect, sources said. Investigators are funny successful what brought him to the parkland successful a distant portion of the metropolis and whether helium intended to conscionable anyone.

Trevor Bickford, 19, has been charged with attempted execution for attacking New York City constabulary officers connected New Year's Eve adjacent Times Square.

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The 3 officers were released from the infirmary connected Sunday.

New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell reporters during a press conference Sunday that the incidental occurred conscionable aft 10 p.m. connected Saturday adjacent West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue, extracurricular the unafraid country that had been acceptable up for New Year's Eve celebrations.

Sewell said the onslaught was "unprovoked" and that Bickford attempted to onslaught 1 serviceman implicit the caput with the machete.

"The antheral past struck 2 further officers successful the caput with the machete," she said.

One of the officers fired their weapon, striking the fishy successful the shoulder, according to Sewell. The fishy was past taken into custody.

Bickford remains hospitalized successful custody astatine Bellevue Hospital due to the fact that of the injuries helium sustained erstwhile constabulary changeable him.

One of the injured officers, an eight-year seasoned of the NYPD, suffered a laceration to the head, officials said. Another wounded serviceman had conscionable graduated from the constabulary academy connected Friday, and arsenic is traditionally the case, his archetypal duty was the New Year's Eve item successful Times Square.

The rookie was besides struck successful the head, resulting successful a skull fracture and ample laceration, officials said.

The New York Police Department released an representation of a weapon they said had been recovered astatine the country of an officer-involved shooting adjacent Times Square connected New Year's Eve.

NYPD

Prior to New Year's Eve, the NYPD had noted that violent groups had been mobilizing for a imaginable New Year's Day attack.

"Throughout December, aggregate pro-ISIS users disseminated extremist propaganda graphics broadly calling for attacks successful beforehand of the New Year, advocating a wide scope of low-tech tactics," the NYPD's pre-event appraisal study said.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force had antecedently looked into the suspect, instrumentality enforcement sources told ABC News, aft the reports from his parent and aunt. Federal coercion charges are inactive imaginable successful the attack.

ABC News' Josh Margolin and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.