Alleged New Year’s Eve machete attacker charged with attempted murder, assault

New York authorities have charged the alleged New Year’s Eve machete attacker Trevor Bickford with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of assault, the New York Police Department told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Bickford, 19, allegedly attacked three police officers outside the Times Square New Year’s Eve event with an 18-inch machete, hitting two of them in the head. Federal investigators charged Bickford Monday afternoon after the FBI and NYPD announced in a press conference that they were looking into Bickford’s online activity.

“I want to be clear the FBI and the terrorism task force is working very closely with the [NYPD] to determine the nature of this attack and we will run every lead to the ground,” Mike Driscoll, FBI assistant director in charge, said during the press conference. “[A]s you heard the mayor and the commissioner state earlier, that there is no ongoing threat, we believe this was a sole individual at this time, there’s nothing to indicate otherwise.”

Bickford allegedly told police after his arrest that he had been planning to specifically attack police officers, according to CBS New York. A diary reportedly belonging to Bickford detailed his turn toward radical Islam in recent months, writing his brother Devon, a Marine, had “joined the ranks of my enemy” and begged his family to “repent to Allah.”

The FBI did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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