- A suspect accused of attacking NYPD officers had reportedly been placed on a federal watch list.
- The suspect's mother had reported him to the FBI, ABC News reported, citing law enforcement sources.
A 19-year-old man accused of attacking three New York Police Department officers near the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration had recently been put on a federal do-not-fly list after his mother reported him to the FBI, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that a few weeks before the December 31 attack, the suspect's mother had grown concerned that her son was learning about extremist Islamic ideologies and reported him to the FBI.
Sources told ABC News that the FBI then interviewed the suspect and determined that he planned to go to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban. The FBI declined to comment following a request from Insider.
The FBI then placed the suspect on a federal terrorist watch list preventing him from traveling abroad, the sources told ABC News.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that the suspect took the train from his hometown of Wells, Maine, before the December 31 attack. The sources said he withdrew thousands of dollars in cash and purchased the knife before getting on the train.
The sources told ABC News that before the attack the suspect also donated a large amount of cash to the Bowery Mission, which serves homeless and hungry New Yorkers, which investigators believe may have been intended to fulfill his Muslim duty to charity.
The suspect's backpack was found at the scene of the attack, and police found a diary expressing radical Islamic beliefs inside, law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN. On the day of the attack, the suspect had written in the diary, "This will likely be my last entry," followed by a last will and testament, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source.
The machete that the suspect is accused of using in the attack was rusted and dull, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference on Sunday that one officer experienced a laceration to his head in the attack, and another's skull was fractured and lacerated. All three officers were taken to a nearby hospital where they have since been released, ABC News reported.
An officer shot the suspect in the shoulder during the attack, and the teenager is still in custody at New York's Bellevue Hospital.
He has been charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of attempted assault, the NYPD told CBS News. The case is being investigated as a possible terror incident, Sewell said.