NEW YORK (AP) — A Maine man who admitted trying to kill three police officers with a machete in a terrorist attack near New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve 16 months ago was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Thursday in a courtroom packed with officers.

The sentencing of Trevor Bickford in Manhattan federal court came after Judge P. Kevin Castel listened to emotional statements from the three police officers who Bickford attacked about two hours before midnight on Dec. 21, 2022, as the officers screened New Year’s revelers at the sole entrance to an otherwise closed-off Times Square.

Bickford shouted “Allahu akbar” — the Arabic phrase for “God is great” — before striking the officers in the head with the machete and trying to grab an officer’s gun. One officer suffered a fractured skull.

The threat ended when Officer Michael Hanna shot Bickford in the shoulder. At a hospital, Bickford told authorities that he had studied radical Islamic ideology and decided to wage jihad against U.S. officials.