Teen attacks three NYPD officers with machete near Times Square, commissioner says
The machete that police recovered at the scene. Credit: NYPD
Three NYPD cops were assaulted in an "unprovoked" attack late Saturday night by a machete-wielding teenager from Maine only blocks from the Times Square New Year’s festivities, the city's police commissioner said.
One of the injured cops shot the teen in the shoulder. The teen was identified by a law enforcement source as Trevor Bickford, 19.
The officers, who were not identified, and Bickford were all hospitalized, said NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell. It was uncertain when he would be arraigned on charges.
Bickford is "self-radicalized” in Islamic extremism, the law enforcement source said.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved in the investigation, the source said, and Bickford has not yet been charged with the attack. The FBI had opened a case on Bickford in November, the source said.
The attack occurred at about 10:11 p.m. at the corner of West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue — outside the security zone for the Times Square ball-drop gathering, Sewell said.
“Unprovoked, a 19-year-old male approached an officer and attempted to strike him over the head with a machete. The male then struck two additional officers in the head with a machete,” she said.
Watch as Police Commissioner Sewell & Mayor Adams provide an update on a police involved incident in Manhattan. https://t.co/ha11b02Fvq
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One of the officers, on the force for eight years, sustained a deep cut to the head, she said. Another cop, who graduated from the police academy on Friday and was on his first day on the job, also sustained a deep cut and a skull fracture. The injuries to the third officer weren’t disclosed.
“One of the officers fired their service weapon, striking the subject in the shoulder,” she said.
Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at a news conference at Bellevue hospital with police officials, said: “It is a happy new year’s. We have three officers who are going home.”
Sewell said there is no active threat to the public.
Bickford is believed to have acted alone, according to Michael Driscoll, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office.
The officers' body-worn cameras are being reviewed, Adams said. The footage was not made public.
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