New Year’s Eve Times Square terrorist manifesto reveals details of all-American teen turned jihadist

A chilling portrait is emerging of the radicalized Islamic teen who allegedly attacked and injured three New York City police officers with a machete as revelers amassed in nearby Times Square to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve.

The FBI raided the Wells, Maine, home of Trevor Bickford, 19, on Sunday, and details of a manifesto written by the so-called “All-American jihadi” have been released.

As BizPac Review reported, the annual Big Apple bash on New Year’s Eve was thrown into chaos when Bickford allegedly struck one NYPD officer in the head with a machete, then struck another, and was attempting to attack a third when he was hit in the shoulder by an officer’s bullet in what was an unprovoked attack at West 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, according to NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell. An additional officer was reportedly hit by a police car as he tried to clear a path for the responders and is expected to recover.

Prior to the attack, Bickford hand-wrote a disturbing note in which he urged his family to “please repent to Allah and accept Islam,” police sources told the New York Post.

“To my family — specifically, mother —  I’m sorry for not having been a good enough son,” the note continued.

The young suspect feared his family would not escape the “hellfire.”

“I fear greatly that you will not repent to Allah. And therefore I hold hope in my heart that a piece of you believes so that you may be taken out to the hellfire,” the note reportedly read.

“To [my brother] Travis. Of anyone I’ve known who I have felt is closest to faith — it’s you,” the police sources say Bickford 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.”

He then turned his attention to his other brother, Devon, who, according to sources, is a Marine.

“To Devon, there was a time when we were close, but that time has passed,” Bickford allegedly wrote. “You have joined the ranks of my enemy. And for that I can give you no kind words – return to Allah.”


(Video: YouTube)

In a twist that, at this point, surprises no one, the teenager was already on an FBI watchlist, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Sunday.

After Bickford expressed a desire to fight in Afghanistan with Islamic militants, his mother and aunt reportedly rang the authorities, landing the radical on the FBI’s terrorism “Guardian Watchlist,” according to the sources.

How the young man, who allegedly told the feds he came up with the plan to attack a uniformed officer or someone armed because they are the “enemy of the state,” became so radicalized is unfolding as a tragic story.

Bickford “once made the school honor roll, won awards for his artwork and was a member of the championship football team in his hometown,” the Daily Mail reports.

It was after his father, Thomas Bickford, died in 2018 of a drug overdose that Bickford’s “all-American” persona began to crumble.

Investigators are now combing through the teen’s online profiles, looking for what they call “jihadist writings,” according to the Daily Mail.

On July 28, Bickford’s mother posted to her Facebook page a birthday message for her 19-year-old son.

“Happy 19th Birthday Trevor. So proud and lucky to be able to call you my son,” she wrote.

“You’re an old soul and you amaze me every day with all that you enjoy to explore and do,” she continued. “I love that you have no fear of trying new things, and you truly are the best brother ever. I am so beyond proud of the man you are becoming, I love you.”

Melissa Fine

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