A Maine man who admitted trying to kill three police officers with a machete in a terrorist attack near New York’s Times Square 16 months ago on New Year’s Eve was sentenced Thursday to 27 years in prison in a courtroom packed with police officers. He was sentenced in 2018.
The sentencing of Trevor Bickford in Manhattan federal court comes after Bickford was arrested about two hours before midnight on December 21, 2022, as police officers were performing autopsies on people celebrating the New Year with the soles of their shoes. The decision came after Judge P. Kevin Castel heard emotional statements from the three officers who attacked him. The closed entrance to Times Square.
Maine ‘jihadist’ pleads guilty to machete attack near Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2022
Bickford shouted “Allahu Akbar” (meaning “God is great” in Arabic), hit the officers over the head with a machete and tried to take their guns. One police officer suffered a serious skull fracture.
The machete used to injure three New York police officers during an attack in New York’s Times Square on January 1, 2023. (New York City Police Department/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The threat ended when Officer Michael Hanna shot Mr. Bickford in the shoulder. At the hospital, Bickford told authorities that he had researched Islamic extremist ideology and decided to wage jihad against U.S. officials.
The judge cited 20-year-old Bickford’s age and history of mental illness as reasons for leniency under federal sentencing guidelines that recommended a life sentence. The prosecution had asked for a sentence of 50 years in prison, but the defense recommended a sentence of 10 years.
He also said Bickford’s mother believed her son was suffering from a mental illness, including schizoaffective bipolar disorder and major depressive syndrome, which has symptoms of depression, mania and psychosis, including delusions of grandeur and hallucinations. He also talked about how he repeatedly called the police and hospital for help after seeing something.
The judge said Bickford told a mental health professional 20 days before the New Year’s Eve attack that he had plans to harm others, intended to act on those plans and wanted to carry out jihadist attacks. He is said to have said that.
“I’m not a medical professional and I’m not here to criticize the medical professionals who saw this and met with him, but it’s disturbing to read these records,” Castel said. “If he had listened to his mother and listened to her instincts, if the medical professionals had been able to look at things a little differently, this might not have happened. .”
When given the chance to speak, Bickford apologized to the police officers he had hurt and other witnesses to the crime.
“I understand that it has left a scar, both physically and mentally,” he said. “Mental illness led me down a dark path.”
Police officer Hanna, who was the first to speak at the sentencing hearing, recalled the assault and said: “I saw a big knife grazing the side of my head,” and I just bowed my head a little, then turned around and saw a big knife. He said he saw Ford chase him with a machete with an ax inside it. 13 inch blade.
“As he continued to approach, I pulled out my gun and fired a single bullet, which immediately struck the defendant. He fell to the ground,” Hanna said.
The officer said his parents immigrated from the Middle East 20 years ago “to get away from this kind of thing.”
Officer Louis Loriot said he was barely able to maintain consciousness after sustaining a large cut to his scalp that required seven stitches that night.
He now suffers from migraines several days a week and deals with anxiety and depression that causes him to “cry for no reason” and become crippling, which is why he stopped working as a police officer for 10 years. He said he is likely to be forced to retire after his career as a With waves of sadness. But treatment has helped, he added.
Officer Paul Cozzolino, who had just graduated from the police academy the day before the attack, said some physical pains, such as headaches, are permanent. He choked up, saying it was going home to his family that night that he would “cherish forever.”
Defense attorney Marisa Cabrera said her client is “deeply remorseful” and comes from a family with a “strong and proud military background,” including one who served in the U.S. Navy. This includes two grandparents who were in the military, a younger brother who is currently in the military, and a younger brother who was a military officer. I plan to participate.
Bickford also wanted to join the military before mental illness became an epidemic, she said.
Now, she said, “Thanks to medication and treatment, Mr. Bickford is back to his old self.”
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But Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaylan Lasky urged the judge to ignore Bickford’s “selfish claims” about rehabilitation, especially since he could return to his previous state of mind if he stopped taking the medication.
She said he “should not be given another opportunity to kill Americans” after “harming, injuring and terrorizing innocent New Yorkers.”
The judge ordered that authorities monitor Bickford’s internet usage and other aspects of his life for the rest of his life after he is released from prison.
