An admitted wannabe jihadist who attacked three NYPD cops with a foot-long machete in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 2022 was sentenced to 27 years in prison Thursday.
Trevor Bickford was handed down the sentence by Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty in January to slashing three cops in a lone wolf attack during the annual celebration in the Crossroads of the World, according to prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.
As part of the sentence, the 20-year-old Maine native will be on lifetime supervision once he’s freed.
Bickford had faced up to 120 years behind bars if the judge doled out maximum consecutive sentences on all six counts he pleaded guilty to.
In the days leading up to the incident, Bickford, then 19, traveled from his Maine home to New York City with a machete and a twisted plan to kill as many people as possible in the name of Islamic jihad, prosecutors say.
The machete-wielding madman unleashed his New Year’s Eve attack near West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue while screaming “Allahu Akbar” — which translates in Arabic to God is great — prosecutors say.
He injured three cops — including fracturing one of their skulls — before one the officers shot him in the shoulder, bringing an end to the rampage. All of the officers survived.
After the attack, Bickford admitted he was trying to take out as many military-aged men as possible so he could become a martyr and inspire other Islamic extremists, the feds say.
The teenager became radicalized in the summer of 2022 after he consumed Islamic and al Qaeda propaganda.
The FBI had a few weeks warning about Bickford after his mom flagged to local cops that her son had become obsessed with the religion. The feds were notified by police on Dec. 10.
Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams lauded the message such a serious sentence sends to others contemplating terrorist acts.
“Bickford’s conviction and sentence demonstrate that cowardly acts of terrorism will be met with law enforcement’s unwavering resolve to protect New York City, our country, and our core values of freedom and democracy,” Williams said.
Bickford pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder of officers and employees of the US government and persons assisting them and three counts of assault of officers and employees of the US government and persons assisting them.
He still faces a separate case for the same incident in state court. Trial is pending in that case.
Bickford’s criminal defense attorneys didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
