In his sleepy Maine hometown, teen-aged Trevor Bickford was just one of the guys.
The Wells High School student won an honorable mention two years ago for his entry in the state’s Scholastic Arts Awards, cited for his submission in the jewelry category. He played on the town football team, winners of the 2018 state title, and spent summers as a groundskeeper at the local golf course in what locals called “The Friendliest Town in Maine.”
“He was chill,” recalled an old friend who worked alongside the accused terrorist at the Old Marsh Country Club. “He was always just quiet and laid back. He never got into fights or anything ... He was never like alone or anything. He had friends.”
The 19-year-old changed the small town narrative in a New York minute on New Year’s Eve: Bickford, months after an abrupt embrace of radical Islam, arrived in Manhattan two hours before midnight as a violent jihadist armed with a machete and intent on murdering police officers, according to authorities.
The slender suspect, just 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, was arraigned last week in his bed at the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward and faces a mandatory lifetime behind bars if convicted. He remains in custody without bail, leaving those who knew Bickford left to ponder exactly what happened.
His old friend recalled the terror suspect as “nice, respectable,” a typical teen who usually wore jeans, boots and a baseball cap. A different and deranged Bickford traveled alone from Maine to Manhattan, boarding a train on Dec. 19 for the nearly 300-mile trip south before hunkering down in a Queens park where authorities later found his sleeping bag and camping equipment, sources said.
He arrived in Midtown shortly after 10 p.m., just a short walk from a Times Square packed with New Year’s revelers, before the vicious machete attack caught on video and the officers’ bodycams at the corner of Eighth Ave. and W. 52nd St.
But the most damning evidence came directly from the suspect after his arrest, court documents alleged.
“I wanted to kill an officer in uniform,” he reportedly confessed to a New York Police Department detective. “I saw the officer and waited until he was alone. I said Allahu Akbar. I walked up and hit him over the head with a kukri (knife). I charged another officer but dropped the knife.
“And I tried to get the officer’s gun but couldn’t.”
His neighbors in Maine greeted the New Year with helicopters hovering in the sky above the Bickford home as FBI agents parked their cars in the driveway of the suspect’s two-story house — where three “No Trespassing” signs quickly sprouted around the property.
By then, Bickford was recovering in the Manhattan hospital after a third cop shot him in the shoulder to end the violent attack. The officer who suffered a skull fracture when hit with the blade was a rookie working his first shift, police said.
“(The) Defendant admitted that he purposefully waited until he saw a moment when the officer was isolated and not near any civilians when he could attack him,” said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Lucy Nicholas.
The suspect was scheduled Friday for his first court appearance, although the hearing was delayed as he remained hospitalized. Prosecutors instead announced a new 18-count indictment against Bickford with multiple terrorism charges, including the attempted murders of three NYPD officers before he was subdued and arrested.
Police sources said Bickford expected the attack to end with his death. A note recovered by investigators included his requests for a traditional Muslim funeral and to leave all his belongings to his mother, the sources added.
According to the friend, Bickford had nonchalantly mentioned his conversion this past summer without going into detail. And the Times Record newspaper in Bangor, Maine, reported his mom shared an upbeat Facebook message when her teen turned 19 in July.
“So proud and lucky to be able to call you my son,” read the post. “(You’re) an old soul and you amaze me everyday with all that you enjoy to explore and do. I am so beyond proud of the man you are becoming.”
Five months later, the worried mom appeared at the Wells Police Department to share her concerns about Bickford’s embrace of his new faith and ask what steps she might take. The teen was talking about traveling to the Middle East before opting instead for the nation’s largest city, and his mother was worried.
“(She) contacted us and said, ‘What should we do?’” recalled Capt. Gerald Congdon. “She came and had a conversation with a police officer, looking for some guidance and assistance. Based on the information that she gave, we gave her that guidance. And then we also called the FBI.”
