(NY Post) A rookie NYPD police officer on his first day on the job was attacked with a machete on New Year’s Eve just blocks [from] Times Square — and police are probing whether the suspect is a recently radicalized Islamic extremist, according to police sources.
The officer — who graduated Friday and was assigned to a Staten Island precinct but was working the New Year’s Eve detail for the night — was stationed at West 52nd Street and 8th Avenue when the machete-wielding madman approached him and two other officers around 9:30 p.m., NYPD sources told the Post.
The post was outside the area attendees were being screened for weapons, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference early Sunday.
(Text updated)