The teenage suspect in New Year's Eve machete attack on three NYPD officers near Times Square is a "homegrown violent extremist," according to senior officials, and has been charged with attempted murder.
Trevor Bickford, a 19-year-old from Wells, Maine, faces two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of attempted assault for the scary Saturday night incident, the NYPD announced Monday. The charges come after he allegedly swung a large knife at the three different officers he had approached on Eighth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets just after 10 p.m., during a night when the streets of midtown are always packed with tourists and revelers.
Law enforcement sources said that Bickford had been interviewed by federal investigators over pro-jihadi declarations prior to his alleged machete ambush. The teen was in a federal law enforcement database after a relative alerted law enforcement about the radical pro-jihadist views previously expressed, multiple police officials said. Federal officials interviewed Bickford in December shortly after being alerted, sources added.
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Senior officials briefed on the attack called Bickford a "homegrown violent extremist motivated in part by Salafi-extremism." After he was arrested, Bickford said he was self-radicalized and that he had converted his beliefs about three or four months ago, officials said.
Bickford only recently considered New York as a target, and decided to go forward with the attack once he got to NYC after taking an Amtrak train from Boston on Dec. 29, according to law enforcement officials. He stayed at a hotel on the Bowery, senior police officials told NBC New York. He may have spent time ahead of the attack in Forest Park, Queens, where investigators found more of his belongings Monday morning.
According to senior officials, Bickford previously expressed desire to go to Afghanistan to fight, and one official said the teen had initially looked into carrying out "jihad" against Burma or China for their governments' treatment of Muslims. He also had a document that read "Stop Genocide Save Rohingya Now Burma Task Force."
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Three law enforcement officials said that Bickford booked two separate trips to the Middle East in recent weeks, but did not show for them. On Nov. 7, he had a multiple-stop trip that would have ultimately brought him to Saudi Arabia.
Then on Dec. 11, sources said Bickford had booked a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Amman, the capital city of Jordan. It was around the time of that second booking when a relative called law enforcement, sources said, and it was after being interviewed by law enforcement that Bickford opted to go to NYC instead.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the suspect 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 were 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,” the mayor said at the press conference.
One of the officer attacked was Paul Cozzolino Jr, who just graduated from the police academy on Friday. Longtime neighbors in Ossining, New York, described Cozzolino as a friendly and caring guy.
"He's a giving person, you see, and I feel like it's more his nature to give back," said neighbor Parag Kulkarni. Another neighbor said "we need good cops like Paul. He's a good kid."
Bickford 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. Officials said he had personal writings in his backpack that also included terrorist-related propaganda as well as a pocketknife and approximately $200 in cash.
The suspect, who was still hospitalized Monday evening, wrote in a diary whom he wanted to leave belongings to and where he wanted to be buried, officials said, suggesting he might have expected to die during the attack. He also allegedly wrote about his family, including regrets for disappointing his mom and hopes his brother would join his radical ideology.
In his writings, he referred to nonbelievers as "Kuffar" and indicated he wanted to die for his religion, senior officials said. The teen told himself that woman and children were off-limits for the attack, but thought the nonbelievers were fair game, according to two law enforcement sources. Bickford also criticized a brother for joining the U.S. Army, saying he had "joined the ranks of my enemy."
"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.
Investigators planned to search for more evidence at Bickford's home in Maine. Neighbors who knew the suspect and his family told NBC Boston said they were surprised by what the teen had done, and felt for the parents.
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.
Since 9/11, there have been at least 10 terror-type attacks targeting uniformed officers with knives.
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, as exclusive video showed panicked witnesses running from the scene. The New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square were not impacted.
The oner of Fiorentina Restaurant, Mike Sicilliano, said that crowds rushed inside his eatery looking for safety.
"All of a sudden we hear a lot of noise, people are frantic trying to get out of the store, trying to get into the store. And after that, a couple more seconds, we heard a gun shot," he said. "People were crying, people were screaming. And they didn't know what to do...It was a lot of kids in the area and especially the store, and so everybody was trying to protect whatever they can. I tried to calm the people down."
