Hatchet-Wielding Attackers Shot Dead by NY Police

New York City police shot and killed a hatchet-wielding man after he suddenly attacked a group of patrol officers without warning in a busy commercial district in Queens of New York.
Man attacked the group of four officers, unprovoked, as they posed for a photo with a freelance photographer on Thursday. Without a word, the man swung at an officer who blocked the blow with his arm. Another officer was hit in the back of the head and fell to the ground.As the man raised the hatchet again, the two uninjured officers drew their weapons and fired several rounds, Police Commissioner William Bratton said at a news conference at a hospital where one officer was being treated for a serious head wound.
The bullets killed the assailant and wounded a 29-year-old female bystander.
Although Bratton said there was nothing to indicate the attack was related to terrorism as AP report, AFP says that the man, identified in the US media as Zale Thompson who attacked New York City police officers with a hatchet before being shot dead was reported to have “extremist leanings”.
Zale Thompson, had posted an array of statements on YouTube and Facebook that “display a hyper-racial focus in both religious and historical contexts, and ultimately hint at his extremist leanings,” the SITE monitoring group said.
The man who took the photograph was cooperating with police and was not considered a suspect, police said.
Security Cameras recorded Moments before the attack when the man was seen on a street corner crouching down to pull the hatchet out of backpack.
Bratton said that police were investigating the motive for the attack and that it was too early to determine whether it was terror-related attack or not.
“I think certainly the heightened concern is relative to that type of assault, based on what just happened in Canada and recent events in Israel — certainly one of the things that first comes to mind — but that’s what the investigation will attempt to determine,” Bratton said.
He was referring to what Israeli police have described as a “hit-and-run terror attack” on Wednesday, when a Palestinian driver killed a baby after he rammed his vehicle into a group of pedestrians in Jerusalem.He shot dead at the Scene.
In Canada, two young Canadians with extermist leanings staged separate deadly attacks this week.
One ran his car over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one, before being shot dead by police on Monday. Two days later another shot an unarmed soldier at an Ottawa war memorial before storming into parliament where he was gunned down.
The authorities have said that both attackers were extremists tempted by war in Syria, but have found neither any connection between them nor evidence of a wider plot.