Trevor Bickford was sentenced on Thursday to 27 years in prison for attacking three New York police officers with a machete-style knife in the name of jihad.
On New Year’s Eve 2022, Bickford, 20, traveled from his home in Maine to New York City to execute his attack during the Times Square New Year’s Eve festivities. Before executing the attack, Bickford screamed “Allahu Akbar,” a phrase used by radical Islamic groups while carrying out attacks, according to the Justice Department. He swung his blade at their heads, causing serious injury to all three, and he also attempted to grab one of the officer’s guns. One of the officers managed to shoot Bickford in the shoulder, putting a stop to the attack.
Later, at a hospital, Bickford reportedly told authorities that his attack was an attempt to wage jihad and that the “goal was to kill as many military-aged men who worked for the U.S. government as he could before himself becoming a martyr in the attack.”
Months before the attack, Bickford had planned to travel overseas to Afghanistan and to support the Taliban in their effort to wage jihad against government officials he believed to be anti-Muslim. However, he decided against going overseas and instead focused on waging an attack in America. He consumed materials promoting the Taliban and reflecting the teachings of Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, a prominent radical Islamic cleric who was a “spiritual mentor of al Qaeda.”
Following the attack, officers found a book from Bickford’s backpack with the following passage highlighted: “Fight in the Name of Allah and in the Cause of Allah. Fight against those who do not believe in Allah. Wage a holy war.”
A review of his cellphone found that Bickford made numerous Google searches on how to wage jihad. These searches included “how often do the police patrol in NYC” and “New Years Eve 2023 itinerary in New York City Times Square.”
Bickford, who is believed to suffer from mental illness, was granted leniency by Judge Kevin Castel and his history of mental health problems, which include diagnoses of schizoaffective bipolar disorder and major depression syndrome including symptoms of mania and psychosis, including grandiosity and hallucinations.
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Bickford’s mother had repeatedly sought help from police and hospitals, and less than a month before the attack, Bickford had told mental health professionals that he planned and intended to harm others.
“I’m not a medical person, not here to judge the medical people who saw this and met with him, but it’s disturbing to read these records,” Castel said. “If his mother was listened to, her instincts were listened to, if the medical profession could look at things a little differently, this might not have happened.”
