The person arrested in reference to an assault that injured a number of New York City police officers through the New Yr’s Eve celebration in Instances Sq. has been charged with two counts of tried homicide and two counts of assault, a spokesperson for the NYPD confirmed to CBS Information.
Trevor Bickford, 19, was taken into custody after three officers had been focused by a suspect wielding a machete, officers say. Legislation enforcement sources inform CBS Information that Bickford, who’s from Wells, Maine, had just lately been added to the FBI’s terror watchlist. A high-ranking police supply told CBS New York Bickford was positioned on the record after his aunt reported that he had been radicalized on-line and expressed a want to journey abroad and be a part of Islamic extremists.
The assault occurred at round 10 p.m. ET on Dec. 31, only a few blocks from the place hundreds of individuals packed Instances Sq. to look at the ball drop at midnight, stated metropolis officers, together with Mayor Eric Adams, at a news conference a number of hours after it occurred. Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell stated two officers had been struck within the head by a suspect carrying a machete, and each had been hospitalized for his or her accidents.
One officer, who suffered a fractured cranium through the assault, had simply graduated from the police academy on Friday. It was his first day engaged on the police pressure, officers stated. A second officer, in his eighth 12 months with the NYPD, was hospitalized for a laceration. Police say these two officers had been struck by the machete after the suspect initially tried to assault a 3rd officer simply exterior of the designated high-security zone surrounding the Instances Sq. festivities.
All three officers are anticipated to get well.
The suspect was additionally wounded within the assault when one police officer fired a gun that struck him within the shoulder, authorities stated early Sunday morning. He was taken to a hospital for remedy and is anticipated to get well.
Legislation enforcement officers with the NYPD and the FBI stated at Sunday’s information convention that they imagine the suspect acted alone and the assault didn’t sign any ongoing risk to the group.
“We imagine this was a sole particular person presently. There’s nothing to point in any other case,” stated Mike Driscoll, the assistant director in control of the FBI’s New York Discipline Workplace. “I wish to be clear that the FBI, by the Joint Terrorism Activity Drive, is working very intently with them to find out the character of this assault, and we’ll run each result in floor.”
Two regulation enforcement sources informed CBS Information that Bickford had taken a bus from Maine to New York Metropolis and spent the evening earlier than the assault at a homeless shelter downtown. They stated investigators are executing search warrants at his residence and are combing by cellphone knowledge, social media accounts and monetary data.
The sources additionally stated a pocket book was discovered within the suspect’s backpack with writings about desirous to go to Afghanistan and prepare to grow to be a holy warrior. They stated there was additionally a notice addressed to his household.
Sources also told CBS New York a bomb squad was dispatched in response to a suspicious package deal discovered with a sleeping bag and one other bag containing meals in a wooded space in Forest Park, Queens, on Sunday, which authorities imagine might have belonged to Bickford.
A police probe into the machete assault is ongoing, and investigators traveled to Bickford’s household residence in Wells, Maine, over the weekend as they labored to find out a possible motive. Officers are asking anybody with details about the case to submit tricks to NYPD’s web site or the Crime Stoppers hotline.
CBS Information’ Pat Milton contributed reporting.
