Times Square Cop Slasher Officially charged After Finding Belongings In NYC Park

The 19-year-old Maine man accused of attacking three NYPD officers with a machete in Midtown on New Year’s Eve night was hit with attempted murder charges as police found belongings tied to him in a Queens park on Monday, Jan. 2, The New York Post reported.

In connection with the attack near Times Square on Dec. 31 that injured three police officers, Trevor Bickford was charged by the state with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault.

Police sources told the media that the incident happened after officers reacted to reports of suspicious parcels in Forrest Park just after midnight and found a sleeping bag, a bedroll, and other food items allegedly belonging to the suspect.

Bickford, of Wells, Maine, traveled to New York on an Amtrak train, arriving on Dec. 29, and appeared to have been a lone wolf, sources have said.

According to reports, investigators think Bickford spent "several hours" in Times Square on New Year's Eve before the attack but avoided going to any sensitive locations.

During the assault, a police officer shot Bickford in the shoulder and he has since been treated at Bellevue Hospital.

Around 9:30 p.m., the machete-wielding lunatic is said to have walked up to Officers Louis Iorio and Paul Cozzolino at West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue, close to a station where officers were checking revelers for weapons, and slashed them with the 18-inch weapon.

Iorio, an eight-year veteran stationed in Staten Island, was gashed in the head, and Cozzolino, a rookie who had graduated from the Police Academy on Friday, Dec. 30, fractured his skull. On Dec. 1, both were discharged from the hospital.

A third officer, Michael Hanna, also a rookie, shot Bickford after he and the other cops were attacked, sources said. Hanna, who joined the force in April, was treated at Mount Sinai West and he too has been released.

Sources said the suspect had told his family that he was traveling to the city for tourism purposes.

According to reports, Bickford had recently been placed on the FBI's terrorist watch list after his mother and another aunt alerted authorities of the newly radicalized man's desire to visit Afghanistan and other foreign countries.