The hatchet-wielding man who attacked four New York City police officers Thursday has no known connections to foreign terrorist groups but exhibited “extremist leanings” online, according to police sources and a terrorist monitoring group. “We would describe him as self-radicalized," Police Commissioner William Bratton told a press conference on Friday.
It’s not clear, in fact, what motivated Zale Thompson’s ambush, which injured two officers before he was shot and killed. Some sources point to radical Islamist sentiments Thompson posted online; others claim he was motivated by racial hatred, not jihad. But one does not necessarily exclude the other—especially when we’re talking about the kind of marginal characters being sucked into the latest wannabe holy war against Western targets.
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