A video featuring a hatchet-wielding man, who attacked four New York Police Department officers before he was gunned down in a busy commercial district in Queens on Thursday, has surfaced.
The now deceased man can be seen in the security camera footage above running while swinging an axe. He is yet to be officially identified by authorities.
However, an unnamed law enforcement official told CNN the man had been identified by police as Zale H. Thompson, who had a criminal record in California and had been discharged from the Navy for misconduct.
When asked by Mashable if the hatchet-wielding man who struck one of the officers in the head had links to terrorist groups, NYPD Detective Brian Sessa said: “He has not been properly identified yet. We wouldn’t know that until we identify.”
Asked if the attack could be related to terrorism, Police Commissioner William Bratton didn’t rule it out during a news conference on Thursday, at a hospital where one officer was being treated for a serious head wound. He cited the fatal shooting of a solider in Canada earlier this week — what officials there have called a terror attack — as reason for concern.
“This early on, we really cannot say yes or no to that question,” Bratton said, adding that police are still trying to determine a motive.
The attacker charged at a group of four rookie patrol officers in the commercial district in Queens at about 2 p.m. ET, injuring two before other officers shot and killed him, New York City police said. He first hit one officer in the arm and another in the back of the head. A bystander was wounded in the gunfire.
After the second officer fell to the ground, the two uninjured officers fired several rounds. The bullets killed the assailant and wounded the bystander, police said.
The attack occurred while the foot patrol officers were posing for a photo, police said. Without a word, the man charged at the officers.
The officer who was struck in the head is in a critical, but stable condition and is expected to undergo surgery. The woman who was struck by a stray bullet also was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the back.