Maine man sentenced to 27 years in prison for machete attack on NYPD officers in Times Square

A Maine man who attacked three New York City police officers with a machete in Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2022 was sentenced Thursday to 27 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.

Trevor Bickford, then 19, said he attacked the officers because he wanted to wage jihad, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said.

Three officers were injured but survived. Bickford used a machete knife and said “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is great” in Arabic, as he struck them in the head, prosecutors said.

The public prosecutor spoke of a deliberate “violent rampage.” Before Bickford traveled from Maine to the world-famous New Year’s Eve event in Times Square to attack police, he immersed himself in Taliban teachings and considered going abroad to support the Islamist extremist group, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“Inspired by radical Islamic extremism, Trevor Bickford brutally attacked three NYPD officers who were simply doing their jobs by protecting the public during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Bickford pleaded guilty in January to three counts of attempted murder of U.S. government officials and employees and people who assisted them.

He was also charged with attempted first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, attempted first-degree murder and other crimes.

The state case is pending. His next court date is May 22, online records show.

Bickford attacked the then-23-year-old first officer about 10:10 p.m., striking him from behind with the knife and then attacking the other two, officials said. The first officer he attacked suffered a fractured skull.

The three injured officers spoke in the Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday, including Officer Mickel Hanna, who shot Bickford once in the shoulder, ending the rampage, NBC New York reported. Hanna said that if he hadn’t fired, “people could have died that night” and that he no longer likes being in crowds, the station reported.

According to NBC New York, Bickford said, “I have been left scarred” and “I hope the victims can forgive me.”

Bickford’s defense attorneys argued that untreated mental illness played a significant role in the attack and that “Mr. Bickford is ashamed and appalled by his attempt to kill three police officers.”

Bickford had “auditory, tactile and visual hallucinations,” they wrote in a sentencing memorandum calling for 10 years in prison.

Bickford wrote in a letter to the judge that he owes an apology to the officers and any witnesses to the attack, as well as to the United States of America. He said hallucinations caused him to delve deeper into radical Islam, adding: “When I attacked the officers, I had become someone else.”

“I wish I could take back my actions. I am grateful to the officers for their quick thinking and actions to ensure I did not injure anyone that night,” he wrote.

Prosecutors called for a prison sentence of at least 50 years and argued that in terrorist attacks, “here too, the need for deterrence is crucial.” They noted that the sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 120 years.

“The defendant planned to kill those who did not subscribe to the extremist strain of Islam that he embraced,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing. “His goal was to kill as many military-age men working for the U.S. government as he could.”