NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Brooklyn man who was arrested after he allegedly stabbed an NYPD officer in the neck and shot another in the hand during an "ambush" in June was "motivated by ISIS-inspired ideology," prosecutors said Wednesday.
Dzenan Camovic, an undocumented immigrant from Bosnia, was indicted on robbery and firearm offense charges Wednesday in connection with the attack, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a release.
Prosecutors say Camovic ambushed a group of NYPD officers who were assigned to an "anti-looting post" near Flatbush and Church avenues in Flatbush, Brooklyn around 11:30 p.m. on June 3, at the height of the George Floyd protests.
After approaching the officers from behind, Camovic stabbed one of them in the neck with a knife and tried to stab another, according to prosecutors.
Camovic then stole the injured officer's gun and began shooting at several officers who responded to the scene, hitting one of them in the hand, prosecutors said. He was taken into custody after one of the responding officers shot him.
The officer who was stabbed and the officer who was shot were both expected to recover after the attack. Camovic was hospitalized in critical condition.
Throughout the ambush, Camovic "repeatedly shouted 'Allahu Akbar,'" an Arabic phrase that means, "God is the greatest," according to prosecutors.
An investigation later found that he "possessed a significant volume of materials that demonstrates his interest in and support for violent Islamist extremism, including materials related to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement included in the release.
In his own statement, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea called Camovic "a consumer of terrorist propaganda and calls for violence by groups like al-Qaida and ISIS."
"His premeditated ambush of two New York City police officers can never be accepted," Shea said. "As the investigation continues into his motives, these significant federal charges reinforce the notion that an attack against police officers is an attack against society."
Camovic faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted. His attorney information wasn't immediately available Wednesday.
