"The Maine teenager and suspected radicalized Islamist extremist charged with attacking NYPD cops near Times Square had been on the FBI’s radar for about three weeks before the New Year’s Eve slashing, law enforcement sources told The Post on Tuesday.
Trevor Bickford’s mom, Audra Simpson, called police in their town to express concerns about her 19-year-old son’s increasing obsession with Islam on Dec. 10, and local cops passed the tip on to the feds, the sources said.
‘As a result of that conversation, we gave her some direction and then we notified the FBI,’ Wells Police Capt. Gerald Congdon told The Post.
‘It was some of the information that she was concerned about that she had heard from Trevor.’
The FBI placed him on its ‘Guardian Watchlist’ — but it’s unclear what other action was taken before he boarded an Amtrak train to New York on Dec. 29, according to sources.
Two days later, Bickford allegedly set upon cops working the holiday security detail near the Crossroads of the World with a machete, injuring three, including a rookie on his first day who suffered a skull fracture. Sources have said the attacker yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ when he lunged at the officers..."