Two New York City police officers are recovering after they were attacked last week by a man brandishing a hatchet in the borough of Queens, police officials told the New York Daily News on Saturday.
The attack occurred Thursday when four rookie officers were posing for photos in the middle of the afternoon near Jamaica Avenue when suddenly a man, identified as 32-year-old Zale Thompson, allegedly began swinging the hatchet at them, according to various news accounts.
Officer Kenneth Healey, 25, whose skull was struck in what Police Commissioner Bill Bratton called an “act of terror,” is reportedly in stable condition at a Jamaica Hospital.
“He’s recovering, but it’s going to be a while,” a high-ranking officer told the paper. Meanwhile, another officer, Joseph Meeker, 24, who was also injured in the attack, was seen leaving his Long Island home on Saturday.
While investigators are still trying to determine what motivated the attack, police told the News that Thompson may have harbored animosity toward the government and white people.
“He started back in 2011 with his angry postings,” a source said told the News. “But it wasn’t until March that he started focusing on the Middle East and beheadings and terrorism.”
Read more at the New York Daily News.