Close on the heels of the shooting episode at neighbouring Canada’s Parliament building, a hatchet-wielding man went on the rampage in New York City on Thursday, attacking a group of police officers and raising the spectre of a “lone wolf” terrorist attack.
The attacker was shot dead after he struck one of the officers in the head with an 18.5 inch-long hatchet, leaving him critically wounded, and another in the arm. A woman, who was passing by, was hit in the back by a stray police bullet during the bizarre episode on a busy street in the Queens borough.
Coming as it did just a day after the Ottawa shooting in which a soldier was killed at a War Memorial near the Parliament building, word spread that the New York attack might well be the handiwork of a camp-follower of the militant ISIS.
But there was no immediate confirmation from the police, who identified the attacker as Zale Thompson, 32. “There’s nothing we know at this time that would indicate that (Islamic terrorism) is the case,” New York Police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters, adding: “That’s what the investigation will attempt to determine.”
Reports indicated that Thompson was a convert to Islam, with some quoting law enforcement sources as saying that he had a criminal record in California and had been discharged from the US Navy for misconduct.
Thompson, whose Facebook page includes a photograph of a masked militant, is being investigated for possible terrorist connections, the New York Post reported. “There are suspected terror ties,” the conservative tabloid quoted an unnamed source as saying.
The paper reported that Thompson allegedly called for a revolution on American soil on his Facebook page, but the messages were no longer visible early Friday. “America’s military is strong abroad, but they have never faced an internal mass revolt,” Thompson posted on the social media site, adding: “They are weaker at home. We are scattered and decentralized, we can use this as an advantage.”
But ABC News quoted a police source as saying that “the initial impression is that he’s just an angry guy who’s ranting about the American government and American oppression of foreign people”.
The motive behind the attack was still to be established. Police obtained a warrant to search Thompson’s computer for clues. A scrutiny of his activity on social media indicated rants about injustices in American society and oppression abroad but offered no clear evidence of any affiliation with terror groups, said a report quoting the police.