The attacker was arrested with a shot to the shoulder and is hospitalized
Three policemen were injured in a machete attack near the area where the New Year’s Eve celebrations were held in Times Square and after which the suspect was arrested, New York authorities reported this Sunday. The mayor of the city, Eric Adamsindicated through Twitter in the hours after midnight that the police officers are “in stable condition” and “in good spirits” while the attacker is in custody, and linked to a photograph of the seized knife.
Adams attended a press conference on the incident this morning with the local police chief, Keechant Sewell, where it was explained that the attack occurred without provocation a few blocks from the festivities, at the intersection of 52nd Street. and Eighth Avenue. Sewell revealed that the detainee, a 19 year old man, After 10 p.m., he attacked three agents in the head with a machete, for which two suffered “lacerations“and one of them, in addition, a fractured skull.
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One of the officers stopped the attack by shooting the suspect in the shoulder, Sewell said. The authorities indicated that they are investigating the incident together with the FBI counterterrorism team, but stressed that there was no credible threat to the city, which in recent years has suffered a notable uptick in violence.
According to the ABC channel, the detainee, who is admitted for the gunshot wound, arrived from the state of Maine on New Year’s Eve, had posted messages on the internet that could indicate a recent Islamist radicalization and his relatives had conveyed their concern to the authorities. In massive events such as New Year’s in Times Square, the city reinforces its security and last night it had deployed an operation of thousands of police officers in downtown Manhattan, where the outdoor celebration took place at full capacity for the first time in two years and without incident.