MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CRIME & JUSTICE

Suspected Islamic extremist Trevor Bickford who used machete to attack two NYPD officers was on FBI watchlist

Trevor Bickford, 19, planned to go to Afghanistan to fight alongside Islamic extremists and was on the FBI's 'Guardian Watchlist' for terrorists

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A suspected Islamic extremist who attacked several NYPD officers with a machete on New Year's Eve close to the Times Square ball drop has been identified as Trevor Bickford, according to numerous law enforcement sources.

Bickford, 19, a resident of Wells, Maine, is thought to have recently converted to Islam and was on the FBI's "Guardian Watchlist" for terrorists. He even planned to go to Afghanistan to fight alongside Islamic extremists, according to sources who spoke to the New York Post. Sources also claimed that the teenager brought a manifesto and diary in his backpack, in which he pleaded with his family to "please repent to Allah and accept Islam." He was supposedly living at the Bowery Mission when he allegedly carried out the claimed New Year's Eve machete attacks. On December 29, he allegedly took an Amtrak train alone to New York City, bringing with him camping gear, a diary, and a last will and testament.

READ MORE

Trevor Bickford: Times Square 'terrorist' was typical Maine boy who played football and won award for art

'It is possible this is not the guy': Internet wonders what happens if Bryan Kohberger is not the killer

Around 10 pm, two cops on duty in Times Square for the holiday detail were allegedly struck in the head with a huge knife in a possible targeted attack. Witnesses claimed the attacker approached the police unnoticed and started swinging the weapon, a Gurkha-style machete, according to sources.

One of the officers identified by sources as Paul Cozzolino, a rookie assigned to the Police Academy, had suffered a fractured skull as a result of the attack. Officer Louis Iorio of Staten Island was the second police officer to sustain a brain injury. They were both taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Bickford was shot in the shoulder by Michael Hanna, a third officer, after he and the other two officers were attacked on Eighth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Street, according to the sources. Hanna was transferred to Mt Sinai West after suffering an undisclosed injury. It was anticipated that all three would recover.

The police reported that Bickford was still being treated at Bellevue on Sunday, January 1, 2023, and that the charges against him were still pending. Bickford reportedly told federal officials after his arrest that Friday, December 30 was when he came up with the murderous plan. The sources claimed that he declared that he wanted to assault an armed or uniformed person since they were the "enemy of the state."

"Imagine being excited on your first major detail and then getting attacked by a guy who's trying to take your head off," former NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone told the New York Post on Sunday, January 1. "Holy cow! It just goes to show you that the cops are targets, not only in New York but everywhere else," he added.

"Things he posted online probably put him on the radar [with the FBI]. But like everything else, it's just missing those one or two pieces for them to be able to act on it. We've seen it time and time again," Giacalone stated.

Sources claimed that Bickford seemed to be a typical American teenager before he supposedly "found religion" in the wake of his father's overdose death in 2018. Bickford reportedly got "radicalized" only recently. Police sources indicated that a preliminary search showed that Bickford has no criminal history.

Sources, however, claimed that because of his radicalization, the FBI in Boston has an active case against him and has placed him on a list known as a 'Guardian Watchlist'. The sources claimed that Bickford made comments that seemed to express a desire to fight in Afghanistan and both his mother and aunt alerted authorities regarding the same.

Police provided a photo of the allegedly used weapon, which was 18 inches long, and police commissioner Keechant Sewell described it as a "large knife." Sewell stated that the officers who were attacked were not in the area subject to security screening.