NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A man accused of stabbing an NYPD officer in the neck June 3 in a "planned assassination attempt" that left two other officers shot has been charged, police said Saturday, adding there may be terror group ties to the incident.
According to the NYPD, 20-year-old Dzenan Camovic of Brooklyn was charged Thursday with attempted murder of a police officer, robbery, assault of a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
"Earlier this week, 1 of our officers was stabbed in the neck without warning while protecting NYers. This was not a chance encounter—it was a planned assassination attempt on an NYPD police officer. It's only by sheer luck that this didn't have a drastically different outcome," the NYPD tweeted Saturday night.
Police said they're trying to piece together a motive for Wednesday night's "unprovoked attack," which happened amid days of protests over police brutality and the death of George Floyd while in custody in Minneapolis. Dozens of NYPD officers have been assaulted in the sometimes violent unrest.
Officer Yayonfrant Jean Pierre was stabbed in the neck just before midnight Wednesday while on an anti-looting patrol, spurring a struggle that saw the suspect shot and two other officers sustaining gunshot injuries to their hands. Jean Pierre and the other officers, Randy Ramnarine and Dexter Chiu, were expected to recover, police said.
Camovic was hospitalized in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, Shea said. The case could end up in the hands of federal prosecutors, with the FBI saying it would use "every federal statute available to hold the perpetrator accountable."
At a briefing Saturday, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said the stabbing had "all the hallmarks that would be out of the terrorist playbook."
Miller said the Joint Terrorism Task Force is looking at the connection between the knife attack and extremist groups.
"It had the same tactics and indicators as attacks we've seen in Paris against police officers, in Europe against police officers," he said. "Surprise attacks with edged weapons, unprovoked."
Miller said Camovic posted accounts of police brutality on his Twitter feed, but no motive has been determined.
According to Miller, disparate groups are heading into peaceful marches and using them as cover to promote looting, violence and assaults on police officers, vehicles and station houses.
"The information that was being passed to us was that there was going to be disorder, property damage and fire," Miller said.
A group forming in the Bronx had amassed ammunition and gasoline, Miller said, adding that the group was stopped as they were planning to do damage in Manhattan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
