A New York police rookie was butchered by a rampaging teen knifeman who stabbed him in the head with a machete on his first day on the job.
Initial reports of gunshots came in just before 9.30pm with dozens of cops rushing to the grim scene, close to where tourists and New Yorkers had gathered to watch the clock strike 12.
A suspect, now identified as 19-year-old Maine resident Trevor Bickford, attacked a group of p olice officers standing guard outside the Times Square perimeter.
One cop shot the suspect in his shoulder. The knifeman and the rookie are now in serious but stable condition at the Bellevue Hospital.
Another officer was hit with the weapon but not seriously injured, with a third sustaining injuries when a police car ploughed into him in the chaos that ensued after the knifing.
The rookie had just graduated from the police academy on Friday before being assisgned to a precinct in Staten Island for New Year.
The Manhattan department called him in for the festive celebration, according to the New York Post.
At a news conference this morning, the NYPD leadership said the attack was unprovoked.
"I want to be clear that the FBI, through the Joint Terrorism Task Force, is working very closely with [NYPD] to determine the nature of this attack," the FBI's Michael Driscoll said at the news conference. "And we will run every lead to ground. I also want to be very clear, as you've heard said tonight previously, this is very much an ongoing investigation so our ability to talk about specifics is limited."
After the bloody incident, cops had a mammoth task of dispersing the thousands of revellers that had thronged on the central square to ring in the New Year.
Vide shows cops hurrying them away and screaming at pedestrians to disperse.
Speaking with the Post, a police source said: "No backpacks or umbrellas in Time Square. They forgot to mention machetes."
Recalling the immediate aftermath, a witness said: "They moved the barricades really fast. He was a police officer in front of the barricade area and he moved it for police cars to move fast — and that’s when the barricade fell and got hit by the car. He got double whammied."
There were additional reports of unrest as the crowds became rowdy around an hour before the shooting.
At a press conference, Mayor Eric Adams said: "The three officers were attacked today, they were doing their jobs.
"The jobs that members of the New York City Police Department and other first responders in law enforcement officers do every day."
"And as we do a preliminary review of the body cam video, we see how well these officers executed the plan that was put in place by the New York City Police Department in ensuring we protect those who came here to bring in a new year," he continued.
In a separate attack at Bryant Park on 42nd, another man was stabbed. He was rushed to the same hospital.
And yet another stabbing was reported just down the road, involving the relentless stabbing of a 41-year-old homeless victim - with the suspect still at large.
The NYPD said the victim, who was knifed eight times, was "un-cooperative after the incident near west 40th Street.
The man was taken to Bellevue, where he is in serious but stable condition.
In haunting images from the scene, what looks like the victim's blood can be seen smeared all over a police car and a pizza restaurant.
Fatal knife crime shot up by 37 per cent in New York last year, with the NYPD logging 96-blade murders in 2022.
In 2021, there were just 70 instances of the same crime reported.
When including non-fatal stabbings and slashings, the figures rose by 10 per cent from 4,344 to 3,954.
