Axe-wielding US Navy veteran who attacked police officers was trying to end his own life and take revenge for 'all that racism'

An unidentified man approaches New York City police officers with a hatchet (AP)

A US Navy veteran, who was shot dead in New York after attacking four police officers, was trying to end his own life while killing a white person in revenge for “all that racism”, his father has reportedly said.

Zale Thompson, 32, a Muslim convert, was killed after hitting one officer on the back of the head and another on the arm with an axe in the city’s Queens district on Thursday.

His father, Ralph Thompson, speaking to the New York Post, said that his son had told him: “They [white people] have to pay for all their unfairness. Unfairness for the way they treat black people.”

However he added that he “didn’t know it would get that serious”.

“He [Zale Thompson] wanted white people to pay for all that slavery and all that racism,” Mr Thompson told a reporter.

“I think he committed suicide — and he was taking one of y’all [meaning white people] with him.”

New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton has described the incident as a “terrorist attack”.

Police said Zale Thompson, described as an unemployed recluse, visited websites associated with several radical Islamic groups and also put “anti-government, anti-Western, anti-white” messages on social media.