Man in New Year’s Eve machete attack faces federal charges

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of attacking police with a machete near New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve is now facing federal terrorism charges. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that Trevor Thomas Bickford was charged Tuesday with federal crimes in connection with his self-avowed jihad U.S. government officials and his knife attack on three police officers in Times Square. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called it a senseless attack. Authorities said the 19-year-old Maine resident began studying radical Islamic ideology last summer. They say he decided in November to wage jihad against U.S. officials and officials of other governments he thought to be anti-Muslim.