The 19-year-old suspect accused of attacking New York police officers near Times Square during New Year's Eve celebrations has been arrested. The suspect, identified as Trevor Bickford, is accused of attacking the police officers with a machete and is facing charges of attempted murder of a police officer, reported CNN.
The police recommended charging the accused with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of attempted assault in the attack, according to the New York Police Department.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said they do not have details of when Bickford will be arraigned.
The arrest comes two days after police officers were allegedly attacked by the suspect at a security screening area outside Times Square, the city’s most known New Year’s Eve celebrations spot.
The police found a diary in the suspect’s backpack, which had been left on the street in a pile of other backpacks that had been taken from people trying to enter security checkpoints around Times Square, reported CNN citing multiple law enforcement sources.
The report stated that the diary ends with a last will and testament, according to the source. The final entry, dated December 31, begins with, “This will likely be my last entry,” and also mentioned how to divide the author’s belongings among his family apart from the instructions for his burial."
In his diary, the suspect also showed a desire to join the Taliban and criticised his brother for joining the US military, the sources said. “There was a time when we were close but that time has since passed,” writings in the diary say, according to the sources. “You have joined the ranks of my enemy.”
According to the CNN report, the suspect also worried his mother would not repent to Allah, according to another writing in the diary, the sources said.
“And therefore I hold hope in my heart that a piece of you believes so that you may be taken out of the hellfire,” he wrote, according to the sources.