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Tags: bernie kerik | times square | radical islam | attack | police officers | new years eve | nyc

Kerik to Newsmax: Feds Will Focus on How Times Square Teen Radicalized

By    |   Monday, 02 January 2023 10:43 AM EST

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik said Monday investigators will drill down on how a machete-wielding man was radicalized before he attacked three police officers as he tried to make his way into the crowd at Times Square on New Year's Eve.

In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Kerik said the 19-year-old suspect — identified as Trevor Bickford, 19, of Wells, Maine — likely was introduced to radical Islamic influences online.

"A lot of this stuff is done online — it's done through these chat rooms," Kerik said.

"That's one of the things the feds will find out once they have — and they probably already had — his phone and electronics, his email, his text messages."

"They'll figure it all out, but I would bet that it's either through friends up around where he lives and came from, or, it was a bunch of online chat rooms and online magazines — these radical Islamic magazines that promote all of this lunacy and these attacks on Westerners."

Kerik hailed the suspect's quick arrest.

"This is a guy — even if they didn't [know he was on a watch list] … even if Intel [is] that you pick them up being in the area — they took him out right away," Kerik said.

"The good thing is, he never got beyond that checkpoint," where he attacked the officers. "You could imagine if he got into one of the 'frozen zones' and one of the corrals, there could be 1,000 people in there one time in that in that zone. There's over a million revelers … from 41st to 57th Street. He could have done a lot of damage."

Kerik noted "Times Square is a crazy place under New Year's Eve — there's a lot going on."

The NYPD has about 7,000 police officers on detail for New Year's Eve, when people flock to Times Square to celebrate the new year, Kerik said.

"It's well covered, and luckily, in this case, [the suspect] didn't make it into the frozen zone which basically encompasses all these corrals from 41st Street … all the way up to 57th Street .. on Broadway," he said.

In the aftermath, Kerik said federal investigators "are now involved looking at [the suspect] and where he came from, what his real intent was, where he was trying to go."

"Luckily for us, they have these checkpoints before you get into the Times Square area," he said — and was stopped at Eighth Avenue on 52nd Street as he tried to get through one of the checkpoints.

"I think when he realized that he was gonna get nagged, and he was going to get put into a corral, at that point, he pulled this weapon out of a satchel or a bag, struck at least one of the officers in the head. Another officer opened fire and hit him in the shoulder," Kerik recounted.

The places where the biggest crowds gather to see performances and the midnight ball drop can only be accessed through checkpoints where officers use metal-detecting wands to screen for weapons.

The attack took place on Eighth Avenue, which is often packed with thick crowds navigating around the frozen zone or trying to find one of the secure entrances.

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Fran Beyer

Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik said Monday investigators will drill down on how a machete-wielding man was radicalized before he attacked three police officers as he tried to make his way into the crowd at Times Square on New Year's Eve.
bernie kerik, times square, radical islam, attack, police officers, new years eve, nyc
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2023-43-02
Monday, 02 January 2023 10:43 AM
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