Act Daily News
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A diary investigators consider belongs to the suspect within the assault on three cops outdoors Times Square on New Year’s Eve ends with a final will and testomony.
According to a number of legislation enforcement sources, the final entry, dated December 31, begins with, “This will likely be my last entry,” and goes on to go away directions on learn how to divide the writer’s belongings amongst his household and directions for his burial, in response to sources conversant in the diary’s contents.
Even earlier than the assault, Trevor Bickford was on the FBI’s radar.
Bickford, the 19-year-old being held by New York City police as a suspect within the machete assault towards the officers, was interviewed by FBI brokers in Maine in mid-December after he stated he wished to journey abroad to assist fellow Muslims and was prepared to die for his faith, in response to a number of legislation enforcement sources.
Bickford’s mom and grandmother grew to become more and more involved about his need to journey to Afghanistan to affix the Taliban and reported this to the Wells, Maine, police division out of concern for him on December 10, the sources stated.
When the FBI opened its wider investigation additionally they positioned him on a terrorist watch listing, in response to sources. Because the Taliban is just not designated a international terrorist entity, planning to journey to Afghanistan to affix the group doesn’t represent the federal crime of “attempted material support of a terrorist group.”
Multiple legislation enforcement sources informed Act Daily News Bickford traveled to New York through Amtrak, so these travels wouldn’t have tripped any watch listing databases.
His authentic vacation spot was Miami, the sources stated, however he stopped in New York and checked in on the Grand Hotel close to the Bowery in Manhattan on December 29. He checked out on New Year’s Eve with all his baggage earlier than allegedly conducting the Times Square machete assault, the sources stated.
The suspect has not been charged, and it’s unclear whether or not he has an lawyer. The US Attorney’s workplace declined to remark. Act Daily News has reached out to the Manhattan DA’s workplace for remark.
Just after 10 p.m. he went to the Times Square checkpoint at West 52nd Street and eighth Avenue the place officers would verify luggage for weapons or suspicious gadgets, NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and police stated.
Bickford pulled out a machete, hanging one officer with the blade and one other officer within the head with the deal with earlier than swinging the blade at a 3rd officer, who then shot him within the shoulder, in response to the sources and the NYPD.
The diary expressed his need to affix the Taliban and was present in a bag he discarded earlier than finishing up the assault, in response to sources.
Bickford stays in custody and underneath police guard at Bellevue Hospital, the place he’s being handled for a gunshot wound to the shoulder sustained through the assault, sources stated.
The three officers – injured at considered one of New York’s most high-profile occasions only a day after their division had warned of an “ISIS-Aligned” video calling for “Lone Offender Attacks” – have all been handled and launched, in response to the New York Police Department.
On Sunday, federal authorities from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have been discussing whether or not to cost Bickford federally or underneath state legislation or each in relation to the assault, the sources stated.