Suspect in NYE machete attack studied Quran and considered international targets

The man suspected of attacking three New York City police officers with a machete on New Year’s Eve had been studying the Quran and considered carrying out an international attack, according to law enforcement sources who shared new information about the suspect’s movements prior to the attack.

Trevor Bickford, 19 — a resident of Wells, Maine, located nearly 300 miles from Times Square — told investigators that he self-radicalized over the past three or four months, according to two senior officials briefed on the attack, who characterized the suspect as a homegrown violent extremist motivated in part by Salafi-extremism.

While only a small minority of Muslims are Salafis, most Muslim violent extremist movements — including al-Qaeda — are rooted in Salafism, a fundamentalist Islamic movement based on 13th-and 14th-century teachings, according to the Minerva Research Initiative, a research program of the Department of Defense, and the Counter-Extremism Project, a non-partisan international policy organization.

Bickford was arrested on two counts of attempted murder and two counts of attempted assault.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office told on Tuesday said the timing of Bickford’s arraignment remains unclear. Officials say the Justice Department continues to look into whether federal terror-related charges are warranted.

He was shot in the shoulder by police during the attack and remained hospitalized Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether Bickford has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

One of the two senior officials briefed on the attack said Bickford indicated he had initially looked into carrying out “jihad” against Burma or China because of the way those governments treat Muslims.

Bickford traveled from Boston to New York on Amtrak on Dec. 29, the officials said.

Law enforcement sources say he considered New York as a target just before traveling to the city and solidified his plans to attack upon his arrival, adding that he said women and children would be off limits.

By the time Bickford, who does not have a criminal record, traveled to New York, he was known to law enforcement: Federal agents interviewed him in mid-December after a relative alerted them to his revolutionary support for Islam, four law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation said.

The relative — whose relation to Bickford, was not immediately clear — told law enforcement they were concerned he was depressed and not taking his medication, law enforcement sources said.

In his diary, Bickford referred to nonbelievers as “kuffar” and indicated he wanted to die for his religion, according to officials.

He detailed who he wanted his possessions to go and where he wanted to be buried if he died in the attack, law enforcement officials have said. He also wrote about disappointing his mother and his hopes that his brothers would join him in his fight for Islam, they said.

Bickford also made pro-jihadist statements from his hospital bed after the New Year’s Eve attack, according to the sources.
New details emerge

Just before the Dec. 31 attack, Bickford had walked across Central Park, but it is unclear where he was immediately prior to the attack, officials said.

Investigators are also looking into whether Bickford stayed at a homeless shelter when he arrived in New York City, four law enforcement officials have said.

During the attack — which occurred said shortly after 10 p.m. at West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue, just outside high-security checkpoints that celebrants had to pass through — Bickford yelled “Allahu Akbar,” an Islamic phrase meaning “God is the greatest,” law enforcement sources said.

The attack began when a man tried to hit an officer over the head with a machete before striking two officers in the head with the blade, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said Sunday. Bickford was then shot and apprehended by police, Sewell said.

Three officers were hospitalized; one had a fractured skull and another had a bad cut. All three were discharged from Bellevue Hospital overnight.

Source: msn