New York City police shot and killed a man with reported Islamic “extremist leanings” on Thursday after he attacked a group of patrol officers with a hatchet, wounding two officers – one of them critically – in a busy commercial district of Queens.

The officers were on foot patrol when they were asked by a freelance photographer to pose for a picture on a Queens street at about 2pm local time, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesman said. The hatchet-wielding attacker charged the group before being shot and killed, police said.

Security videotape and witness accounts appeared to leave no doubt that the man purposely targeted the four rookie NYPD officers, police said. Moments before the attack, he was seen on a street corner crouching down to pull the hatchet out of a backpack before he began swinging the hatchet with a two-handed grip.

He struck one officer in the right arm and then struck a second officer in the head, the spokesman said.

The remaining two officers fired their weapons at the man. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

'Extremist leanings'

The man was later identified by US media as Zale Thompson. According to the SITE monitoring group, 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”.

SITE, which monitors radical Muslim groups, said that in a comment Thompson had posted to a pro-Islamic State group video on September 13, 2014, he described "jihad as a justifiable response to the oppression of the 'Zionists and the Crusaders’”.

A Face book page apparently belonging to Thompson shows a photo of the first verse of the Quran. The page also says he graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 2011.

However, police said it was too early to determine the motive of the attack.

“At this point, no known motive for this attack has been established,” Police Commissioner William Bratton told a press conference.

Asked if the attack could have been related to terrorism, Bratton said it was too soon to tell.

“This early on, we really cannot say yes or no to that question,” Bratton said.

Both officers were being treated at Jamaica Hospital, with the 25-year-old officer who was hit in the head in critical condition. The other officer, who is 24 years old, was in stable condition, the spokesman said.

A 29-year-old female bystander was struck by a stray bullet. She was recovering at the hospital after surgery, the spokesman said.

All four officers involved in the New York City incident graduated on July 8 from the city Police Academy.

FRANCE 24