Man gets 27 years in prison for New Year’s Eve attack on NYPD officers

The man who pleaded guilty to attacking three NYPD officers with a machete in Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2022 was sentenced to 27 years in prison, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Trevor Bickford, 20, of Wells, Maine, was also sentenced to life of supervised release following his prison sentence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said.

Bickford pleaded guilty in January to charges including attempted murder of government employees in connection with the attack, which prosecutors said was motivated by Islamist extremism.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office still has him facing separate charges.

“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. “Fortunately, an officer’s quick actions were able to stop the defendant’s attack while minimizing the risk to the innocent bystanders who could have easily become additional victims of the defendant’s heinous violence.”

Prosecutors said Bickford attacked the three officers on Dec. 31, 2022, at West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue, less than two hours before the annual ball drop in Times Square.

Bickford, then 19, shouted “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great” – before the attack, prosecutors said. He was taken into police custody after one of the officers shot him in the shoulder, prosecutors said.

The three officers were treated for injuries, including cuts.

Prosecutors alleged that Bickford became radicalized months before the incident when he “began accessing and consuming materials espousing radical Islamic ideology,” including pro-Taliban content.

They said Bickford traveled to New York City before the attack to kill a U.S. government official as part of a “jihadist mission.”