New York – The hatchet-wielding man who wounded two New York City police officers, critically injuring one, was a self-radicalized convert to Islam who is believed to have acted alone in what police on Friday called a terrorist attack.
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The suspect, Zale Thompson, who was shot dead by two other officers on Thursday afternoon on a Queens street, had made anti-Western postings on social media and visited websites associated with several radical Islamic groups, police told a news conference.
A search of computers seized from the home of Thompson’s father in Queens, where the 32-year-old man lived, showed he also spent time reading online about beheadings, a recent intrusion at the White House and attacks in Canada.
“This was a terrorist attack,” Commissioner William Bratton said.
Investigators were trying to determine whether Thompson, a black man who converted to Islam two years ago, had any connection to an area mosque. Police said the social media postings of the man described as an unemployed recluse were “anti-government, anti-Western, anti-white.”
Still under investigation was the extent of planning involved in the attack, which appeared to be unprovoked and somewhat spontaneous, Bratton said.
“The fact that he was walking around with a hatchet in the backpack makes it clear this individual had some sense of preparation,” Bratton said.
The attack on Thursday took place in a Queens shopping district in a matter of 7 seconds, police said.
A group of four police officers were posing for a freelance photographer when Thompson charged them, swinging the hatchet. One officer was struck in the arm and another in the head before the other two officers opened fire, killing Thompson.
A female bystander was struck by a stray bullet and critically wounded.
Death by police officer? There are a lot of disturbed people walking about. Oy
The suspect may have a muslim convert and may have posted anti-government rantings, but we should not engage in racial profiling.
NY Times confimed hatchet attacker as jihadi: Investigators on Friday were closely examining the background of a man who attacked several police officers in Queens with a hatchet on Thursday, focusing in part on comments he made on the Internet disparaging whites and Christians and supporting violent jihad.
The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Zale H. Thompson, attacked four rookie New York City police officers as they posed for a photograph on Jamaica Avenue just after 2 p.m. Thursday, striking one in the arm and another in the head, before he was shot and killed by other officers. A stray bullet also struck a bystander in the back.