NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Maine man was ordered held without bail on Wednesday on attempted murder and assault charges after he allegedly attacked three NYPD officers with a machete near Times Square on New Year's Eve.
Trevor Bickford, 19, was arraigned by video at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound sustained when one of the cops he assaulted opened fire to stop the carnage.
Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Lucy Nicholas said Bickford "specifically traveled to New York from Maine in order to begin carrying out his crimes of murder of government officials," arriving in the city a few days before the attack.
Bickford had an Amtrak ticket to Miami and wanted to travel abroad, "but then decided to come to New York first in order to kill people and carry out jihad," Nicholas said. He had no known ties to the city or state, she said.
Nicholas said Bickford told investigators that "all government officials" were a target for him because of the U.S.'s support of Israel, including police officers, but that he purposely spared civilians from harm. Authorities have been investigating whether Bickford was motivated by Islamic extremism.
According to court documents, Bickford attacked the first officer who was standing apart from bystanders at a Times Square perimeter checkpoint at West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue.
He indicated in statements that he wanted to support Jihad on behalf of his newly acquired Muslim faith. In Bickford’s criminal complaint, a detective with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force said he told her: "I wanted to kill an officer in uniform."
According to the detective, Bickford said he waited until he saw the officer alone, said "Allahu akbar," walked up to him and hit him over the head with the machete, which he said was a kukri — a machete-like blade with South Asian origins. In Arabic, "Allahu akbar" means "God is great."
Bickford said he then charged another officer, dropped the knife and attempted to grab that officer's gun. Nicholas said Bickford told investigators he wanted to kill the officers with the gun, but couldn't get it out of the holster.
The machete attack happened about two hours before midnight on Saturday. It briefly sent some people running, but the festivities in Times Square continued.
Bickford is charged with three counts of first-degree attempted murder, three counts of second-degree assault, one count of first-degree assault and two counts of first-degree attempted assault. If convicted, he faces faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Legal Aid Society, which is representing Bickford, said in a statement that the man "is just a teenager" and "has no prior contact with the criminal legal system."
"Earlier today, Mr. Bickford was arraigned from Bellevue Hospital after languishing in NYPD custody for nearly four days despite a well-established court requirement that an arraignment take place within 24-hours of arrest," their statement continued. "We've just received initial discovery from the District Attorney’s office, and we’ll have more to say about this case after a thorough review and investigation. For now, we ask the public to refrain from drawing hasty conclusions and to respect the privacy of our client's family."
He did not enter a plea and has another court appearance scheduled for Friday.
The officers injured in the attack were all released from the hospital on Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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