Trevor Bickford, the 19-year-old American man charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of attempted assault for allegedly attacking police with a machete on New Year's Eve in New York City's Times Square, kept a diary in which he wrote that he wanted to join the Taliban and die as a "martyr" in the cause of Islamic extremism, according to the New York Police Department.
ABC News also reported that the last page in Bickford's diary asked for "burial according to the Islamic tradition," but "not in the land of the non-believers," if the teenager died during his jihad attack.
At about 10 p.m. Saturday, Bickford approached three police officers near Times Square and allegedly assaulted them with a machete.
ABC News on Monday quoted sources as saying Bickford took a sip of water and then shouted "Allahu akbar!" before swinging his blade at the officers.
One of the officers responded by reportedly shooting Bickford in the shoulder.
Another officer, recent police academy graduate Paul Cozzolino, suffered a skull fracture and a cut to his head. Saturday was reportedly Cozzolino's first night with the NYPD force.
The third policeman, veteran officer Louis Iorio, suffered a cut to his head.
Bickford's blade was reportedly rusted and dull. The suspect's initial few swings of the blade "were made with the hilt instead of the blade, accounting for the relatively minor injuries to his victims," according to Breitbart News.
Cozzolino and Iorio were released from the hospital Sunday. Bickford remains in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, after the gunshot wound.
The New York Times on Monday reported that Bickford, a native of a Wells, Maine, possessed "several thousand dollars in cash" when he arrived in New York last week via train.
Before the alleged machete incident, Bickford reportedly spent Friday night in a Bowery hotel and made a "large donation in accordance with the Muslim tenets of charity" at the Bowery mission.
According to the Times, an NYPD official conveyed that Bickford was "at peace" with getting injured or killed, because he "took comfort in knowing he was fighting for Islam."
In the diary, the Times reports Bickford was "dismayed" that the rest of his family did not convert to Islam.
Also, Bickford's diary reportedly included a standard jihadi farewell letter to his mother.
Bickford reportedly wrote: "I fear greatly you will not repent to Allah and therefore I hold hope in my heart that a piece of you believes so that you may be taken out of the hellfire."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.