Published: Just now
Anticipation before the famous stroke of twelve in Times Square was replaced by shock.
Suddenly Trevor Bickford, 19, attacked the police with a machete.
Just weeks earlier, his mother had warned that her son was being drawn to Islamist extremism.
Shortly after ten o’clock in the evening, Times Square in New York was full of expectant people waiting for the stroke of twelve and the big ball to be dropped to mark the new year.
But just outside the square, anticipation turned to shock when Trevor Bickford, 19, suddenly attacked a police officer and tried to slash him in the head with a machete, but missed.
He continued on to two more police officers whom he managed to meet.
One suffered a large cut to the head and the other – who had graduated three days earlier and was doing his first shift – suffered a skull fracture.
Shot by police
The police stopped him after one of them fired his weapon and hit him in the shoulder. The alarm had simultaneously gone out to the thousands of police who guard Times Square on New Year’s Eve. After that, the officers were taken to the hospital.
The police announced during a press conference on New Year’s Day that everyone was in good spirits, but that their families were in shock.
– They were probably watching TV to see the ball drop in Times Square. Then the phone rings and they expect a New Year’s greeting. They never thought the first call of the year would be that their son and husband ended up in the hospital, said Patrick Lynch of the NYPD.
National coat of arms of Nepal
The police have called the weapon a machete, but according to retired CIA agent Darrell M. Blocker, it is rather a so-called kurki, best known for being the national coat of arms of Nepal. It is used by, among others, the famous Gurkha Brigade, an elite unit made up of Nepalese soldiers within the British Army. They are renowned for being among the best and most efficient warriors in the world and are often seen with their knives in pictures.
Islamic radicalization
According to sources such as ABC News spoke to, Trevor Bickford had never been arrested before, but his mother and aunt had contacted authorities in his home state of Maine and were concerned that he had become interested in violent Islamism. His activity on social media also points to him becoming increasingly extreme. The report caused him to be investigated by the FBI in the weeks before he went on the attack.
According to police, Trevor Bickford’s motive for the attacks has not been determined, but police sources ABC News spoke with do not rule out that he took the train from Maine to New York on December 29 just to attack officers on New Year’s Eve.