AFP/Reuters/New York
A man reported to have Islamic "extremist leanings" attacked police officers in New York City with a hatchet on Thursday, injuring two before being shot dead, police and a monitoring group said.
The man, identified in the US media as Zale Thompson, had posted an array of statements on YouTube and Facebook that "display a hyper-racial focus in both religious and historical contexts, and ultimately hint at his extremist leanings," the SITE monitoring group said.
Four police officers in the city's Queens borough were posing for a photograph at the request of a freelance photographer when the man walked up and without saying a word attacked them, a city hall statement said.
One officer was hit in the arm and another in the head before the officers shot and killed the man, according to police commissioner Bill Bratton.
He said police were investigating the motive for the attack, adding that it was too early to determine whether it was terror-related.
A 29-year-old bystander was accidentally hit by a bullet in the lower back and taken to a hospital, while the man who took the photograph was co-operating with police and was not considered a suspect, Bratton said.
Police described the assailant as being around 32 and having dark skin.
SITE, which monitors radical Muslim groups, said that in a comment Thompson had posted to a pro-Islamic State video on September 13, 2014, he described "jihad as a justifiable response to the oppression of the 'Zionists and the Crusaders.'"
Both officers were being treated at Jamaica Hospital, with the 25-year-old officer who was hit in the head in a critical but stable condtion after undergoing surgery, police said. The other officer, who is 24 years old, was in stable condition, the police spokesman said.
Police declined to comment on media reports that the attack was tied to "terrorism" and that an internal memo urged officers to maintain a heightened level of awareness in the wake of recent attacks in Canada.
All four officers involved in the New York City incident graduated on July 8 from the city Police Academy.
