A man swung a large ax at a District of Columbia police officer in an unprovoked attack early Friday, causing the officer to suffer a minor injury while struggling with the man who escaped on foot, TheBlaze.com reported.
The officer was sitting in a marked police car when the man used the ax to shatter the driver's side window, said Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who described the attack as an ambush, according to ABC local news WJLA.
Lanier stressed that police had no evidence linking the attack to any broader plot or to last week's attack of a group of New York City police officers by a hatchet-wielding man, which New York's police commissioner called an act of terrorism, according to TheBlaze.
"A lot of these radical organizations, terrorist organizations, are very vocal about targeting first responders. It's no secret. It's not new. But it certainly has ramped up," Lanier said, TheBlaze reported. "We're on extremely high alert."
Lanier said she spoke with John Miller, New York City's top counterterrorism official, to go over any investigative details that might be helpful, according to ABC.
The New York Police Department also renewed a directive cautioning the force to not patrol on foot alone. No such directive was issued in Washington, ABC reported. The officer spotted the man briefly before the attack and believed he was carrying a baseball bat.
The officer drove into an alley in an attempt to follow him but did not see the man again until the ax hit the car, Lanier said, according to TheBlaze. The officer chased the man and tackled him and was injured in the struggle, police said.
Officer Araz Alali, an MPD spokesman, said there was no apparent connection to last week's attack of a group of New York City police officers by a hatchet-wielding man, ABC reported. New York's police commissioner described that attack as an act of terrorism.
