The alleged Islamic extremist who stabbed a NYPD cop on his first day on the job with a machete near Times Square on New Year’s Eve and was on an FBI ‘watchlist’ wrote a chilling manifesto where he urged his family to ‘repent to Allah.’
The attack happened just outside of the high-security zone where thousands of revelers were screened for weapons as they prepared to ring in 2023.
Trevor Bickford, 19, from Wells, Maine, who officials believe became radicalized and vowed to fight in Afghanistan, addressed a letter to his family where he urged his loved ones to convert so they ‘may be taken out of the hellfire,’ according to Daily Mail.
According to police sources who spoke with one outlet, the Maine resident had a handwritten note and collection of religious materials in his backpack while visiting Manhattan to carry out the attack.
After Bickford allegedly slashed two officers Saturday evening, another NYPD officer shot him in the shoulder and he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, along with the two cops.
‘To my family — specifically, mother — I’m sorry for not having been a good enough son,’ the note read, according to a police source who spoke with the New York Post.
The note, which has not been released publicly, continued with Bickford allegedly writing his hopes that his family will one day see the world the way he does.
‘I fear greatly that you will not repent to Allah,’ it said. ‘And therefore I hold hope in my heart that a piece of you believes so that you may be taken out to the hellfire.
‘Bickford went on to call his brother, Devon, a traitor for serving in the U.S. Army.
‘To Devon, there was a time when we were close, but that time has passed,’ the manifesto said, according to the Post.
‘You have joined the ranks of my enemy. And for that I can give you no kind words – return to Allah,’ wrote the 19-year-old, who does not have a criminal record according to a preliminary investigation.
‘To [my brother] Travis. Of anyone I’ve known who I have felt is closest to faith — it’s you,’ Bickford allegedly wrote.
‘Of anyone I’ve ever wanted to accept Islam with me — it’s you. Please repent to Allah and accept Islam. I fear for you.’
Bickford is on a ‘guardian list’ because of his radicalization, and The New York Post reports he made statements to his aunt about a desire to go fight in the Middle East, which prompted her to tell the authorities.
