New York: A rookie NYPD police officer on his first day on the job was stabbed with a machete on New Year’s Eve just blocks 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 another officer around 9:30 p.m., NYPD sources told The Post.
The rookie cop was slashed in the head, prompting another cop to shoot the suspect, striking him in the shoulder, the sources said. The other cop was also struck on the head with the weapon but was not seriously injured.
The suspect, a 19-year-old, was arrested and taken to a nearby hospital. Bellevue Hospital. Senior law enforcement officials told The Post that cops are investigating whether he is a recently radicalized Islamic extremist, based on online postings.
Both officers were taken to Bellevue Hospital and are expected to recover.
Police are still investigating the shocking stabbing. A motive was not immediately clear.
“No backpacks or umbrellas in Times Square. They forgot to mention machetes,” a police source told The Post.
Mayor Eric Adams arrived to the hospital to visit the wounded cops around 12:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day in an SUV covered in confetti. Earlier, Hizzoner pushed the button to start the ball drop countdown as spectators bid farewell to 2022.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell arrived at the hospital shortly after Adams.
Meanwhile, another cop was hit by a police car when he was trying to move the barricades on 52nd and Broadway to let responding officers get to the machete-wielding man, witnesses said.
