Trevor Bickford is sentenced to 27 years in prison for the machete attack in New York’s Times Square

metro

From Priscilla DeGregory

An admitted would-be jihadist who attacked three NYPD police officers with a 12-inch-long machete in Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2022 was sentenced Thursday to 27 years in prison.

Trevor Bickford was sentenced by Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty in January to the slaughter of three police officers in a lone wolf attack during the annual Crossroads of the World celebration, according to prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office Manhattan.

As part of his sentence, the 20-year-old Maine native will be under supervision for life upon his release.

Bickford could face up to 120 years in prison if the judge imposed consecutive maximum sentences on all six counts to which he pleaded guilty.

In the days before the incident, Bickford, then 19, traveled from his home in Maine to New York City with a machete and a twisted plan to kill as many people as possible in the name of Islamic jihad, prosecutors say.

The machete-wielding madman launched his New Year’s Eve attack near West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue while shouting “Allahu Akbar” – which means “God is great” in Arabic, prosecutors say.

He injured three police officers – including a fractured skull – before one of the officers shot him in the shoulder, putting an end to the rampage. All officers survived.

After the attack, Bickford admitted that he tried to take out as many military-age men as possible in order to become a martyr and inspire other Islamic extremists, authorities say.

The teenager became radicalized in the summer of 2022 after consuming Islamic and al-Qaeda propaganda.

The FBI had been alerted about Bickford for several weeks after his mother alerted local police that her son was obsessed with religion. Police were notified by police on December 10th.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams praised the message such a severe sentence sends to others contemplating terrorist attacks.

“Bickford’s conviction and sentence demonstrate that cowardly terrorist attacks are met with law enforcement’s unwavering determination to protect New York City, our country and our core values ​​of freedom and democracy,” Williams said.

Bickford pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder of U.S. government officials and employees and people assisting them, and three counts of assaulting U.S. government officials and employees and people supporting them.

He still faces a separate case in state court over the same incident. In this case, the trial is still pending.

Bickford’s defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.