A young person who prosecutors say attacked three police officers with a machete close to Times Square on New 12 months’s Eve was arraigned Wednesday morning on three counts of trying to homicide a police officer. Trevor Bickford didn’t enter a plea, and his case might be despatched to a grand jury.
Bickford, 19, who was shot in the course of the attack, remains to be being held at Bellevue Hospital. He attended the arraignment through a video livestream. The display screen was not seen to reporters.
If he’s convicted of the highest cost in opposition to him, Bickford faces a compulsory sentence of life in jail.
Assistant Manhattan District Legal professional Lucy Nicholas mentioned in courtroom that Bickford advised police he was motivated by spiritual extremism, and that he had traveled from Maine to New York particularly with intent to kill authorities officers. His mission was to hold out a jihad throughout the U.S. and past, Nicholas mentioned. Bickford had already bought an Amtrak ticket from New York to Miami to proceed his mission.
Nicholas mentioned Bickford advised investigators that each one authorities officers had been his targets as a result of they “cannot be proper Muslims because the U.S. government supports Israel.” He mentioned he purposely focused a police officer as a result of “an officer is a man in a uniform with a weapon and all men of military age are targets,” Nicholas mentioned in courtroom.
Bickford attacked the three officers on the nook of West 52nd Road and Eighth Avenue simply after 10 p.m. on New 12 months’s Eve. Two of the officers suffered head wounds in the attack. They had been handled at Bellevue Hospital and have been launched.
Nicholas mentioned Bickford advised police that he dropped the machete whereas combating the officers. He mentioned he then tried to seize one among their firearms to kill them, however was unable to get the gun out of the holster, Nicholas mentioned.
Protection counsel Rosemary Vassallo-Vellucci of the Authorized Help Society, who was additionally on the livestream, requested that Bickford be launched whereas he awaits trial attributable to his younger age, the truth that this was his first arrest and since he has a job. The request was denied and Bickford was remanded to the state’s custody.
In an announcement to the press, the Authorized Help Society mentioned it’s in the early levels of reviewing the case. “For now, we ask the public to refrain from drawing hasty conclusions and to respect the privacy of our client’s family.”
The assertion additionally mentioned Bickford waited in NYPD custody for practically 4 days regardless of a courtroom requirement that an arraignment happen inside 24 hours of arrest.