A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said five people in the vehicle were being questioned at an Federal Bureau of Investigation building in lower Manhattan.
Advertisement
This cell phone video shows the 28-year-old handcuffed and laying on the ground in Linden, New Jersey yesterday.
He was later found sleeping in the doorway of a bar and shot at police officers when they approached him. Another police officer was grazed by a bullet. Early Monday, FBI agents swarmed the apartment. The FBI interviewed Rahami again later and the father reiterated his statements.
No charges have been filed yet in connection with the Saturday bombings in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood that left 29 injured and the explosion at a Marine 5K race in Seaside Park, New Jersey.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old Afghan-born naturalised USA citizen since 2011, had married a Pakistani woman and had made at least three months-long trips to both Pakistan and Afghanistan since 2014.
In a news conference, she said the United States needed to work with its allies to combat global terrorism and that the country should launch an “intelligence surge” to detect attacks before they are carried out.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Rahami was ever interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It wasn’t clear if he’d retained an attorney as of Monday night.
Rahami was identified Sunday afternoon through a fingerprint, a senior law enforcement official said.
For those unfamiliar with the greater New York City area, Elizaeth, NJ is right across the river from Staten Island. if you are in Elizabeth and you want to get to JFK Airport you’d cross onto Staten Island and cross the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn where, it appears, these 5 people were taken in for questioning. Police provided no specific description of the men who they said took the bag.
High-ranking New Jersey Democratic lawmaker Bob Menendez told a press conference that whether or not the act was externally directed, it was an act of terrorism.
PHOTOS: Explosion in Chelsea William Sweeney Jr., the FBI’s assistant director in NY, said there are no indications Rahami was on law enforcement’s radar at the time of the bombings.
Rahami first came to the United States in 1995 as a child, after his father arrived seeking asylum, and became a naturalized USA citizen in 2011, according to a law enforcement official who reviewed his travel and immigration record.
Rahami’s family lives above First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, according to the city’s mayor, Chris Bollwage. The lawsuit was terminated in 2012 after Mohammad Rahami pleaded guilty to blocking police from enforcing the restrictions on the restaurant.
A childhood friend, Flee Jones, said Rahami had become more religious after returning from a trip to Afghanistan several years ago. He’s a very friendly guy, that’s what’s so scary. “That’s what’s so scary”.
Authorities had been looking for Rahami in connection with bombings that rocked a crowded Manhattan neighborhood and a Jersey shore town over the weekend.
No one was injured in the other blasts.
Then, on Sunday night in Elizabeth, New Jersey, police found five pipe bombs.
Suspected New York bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami came across the FBI’s radar after a domestic incident in which a police complaint was made, according to a US law enforcement official. “Cops are the real heroes, law enforcement are the real heroes”, Bains said.
On Sunday night, five devices were found in a trash can near a train station in Elizabeth. Five people were questioned at length, but none have been charged.
He faces separate charges of unlawful possession of a weapon.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, new details about Rahami are being revealed.
