NEW YORK – US prosecutors have filed federal charges against a man who allegedly carried out a “jihad-inspired attack” against police officers near New York City’s Times Square on new year’s eve, the US Justice Department said yesterday.
The four federal charges – all for attempted murder – against Trevor Bickford, 19, add to a slew of New York state charges, some terrorism-related.
Bickford, a resident of the northern state of Maine, allegedly travelled to Times Square on New Year’s Eve “to carry out a brazen act of violence and hatred in the name of jihad,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
At a security checkpoint outside the gathering, Bickford stabbed and hit three New York police officers with a machete before being shot in the shoulder, the complaint says, adding that all three officers were hospitalised.
The four federal charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the statement.
“We are deeply grateful for the bravery of the officers who were injured in this horrible attack,” said Attorney-General Merrick Garland, who described the assault as “jihad-inspired.”
The criminal complaint alleges Bickford began “accessing and consuming materials espousing radical Islamic ideology” in the summer of 2022 and later was interested in travelling to the Middle East and Afghanistan “to support the Taliban”.
He “told a family member that he wanted to travel to the Middle East so that he could be a suicide bomber”, but later decided he “would wage jihad against the US government within the United States”, the complaint says. – AFP, January 11, 2023
