Analyst's note: Stunning news out of New York City today of a another Islamist jihadist terror attack. This time the attack was against the NYC Police just as directed by ISIS and known about by the FBI and the Dept of Homeland Security. Work place violence, mental issues or jihad? You be the judge.
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Thursday evening the New York Police Department issued a patrol bulletin alerting officers to be in a state of heightened awareness after Wednesday’s murder of a Canadian soldier and shootout at the Parliament complex in Ottawa. The bulletin warns of potential attacks on uniformed officers.
Today in NYC, a man with an axe approached a group of NYPD officers and, in an unprovoked attack, struck two of them with the axe before officers fired upon the subject, killing him.
The attacker’s name is Zale Thompson. You can see his body in the photo above. He is in a green fatigue jacket with thick black beard.
You can see the immediate aftermath of the axe attack and fatal shooting in the bystander video below, obtained by the NY Post:
The assailant approached 4 “rookie” cops at the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 160th Street in Queens.
“The cops yelled ‘Drop it!’” said rattled eyewitness Larry Bethune, 44, of Hollis, Queens, recalling the moment the psycho pulled a small hatchet from his jacket.
“And he lunged at one of them,” the witness remembered. “He raised his arm up high and brought it straight down on the cop’s head.
“The cop went down to the ground, face first. It was horrible. I’ve never seen anything like that on Jamaica Avenue,” he added. “The cop’s just lying there with blood pouring down his face. He didn’t move.”
Another witness, Kelli Reddica, 24, recalled hearing seven shots ring out as the crazed man was brought down, and seeing the downed cop’s horrible injury.
“He looked like he couldn’t move, and blood was gushing out of his head. Blood just drenched the side of his face,” she said.
UPDATE 9:28pm EST: NEW SURVEILLANCE VIDEO OF AXE ATTACK ON NYPD:
Here is a closer look at the assailant’s head and face:
Tonight, an NYPD source emailed Top Right News Zale’s Facebook page, which features what appears to be a Muslim “Salafist” fighter, along with Arabic, which one source told us is text from the Koran:
Closeup of the Muslim fighter on axe attacker Thompson’s Facebook page:
Finally, Vocativ reports that NYPD and other law enforcement have looked at Thompson’s “online chatter” and found possible evidence of a terror connection:
Law-enforcement sources said that a look into Thompson’s chatter online revealed he had ties to a radical U.S.-based radical Islamic leader who advocated aggression against the American government.
Last month, Thompson, who says on his Facebook page that he graduated from the Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, commented on YouTube: “If you’re looking for ‘perfect’ Muslims who never make any mistakes in their Jihad, then you will be looking in vain! If the Zionists and the Crusaders had never invaded and colonized the Islamic lands after WW1, then there would be no need for Jihad! Which is better, to sit around and do nothing, or to Jihad fisabeelallah!”
Thompson’s comment was on a video explaining the idea of creating an Islamic caliphate, or borderless kingdom, which is ISIS’s ultimate aim.
Events are still developing at this hour, and we will update as circumstances warrant. At last report the NYPD was reportedly engaged in a “massive operation” in the area, and NYPD Chief William Bratton “does not rule out the possibility of a terror attack.”
