Investigators scrambled Sunday night for clues behind an apparent terrorist explosion that rocked NY on Saturday as the Islamic State claimed credit for a Somali immigrant’s stabbing rampage in Minnesota.
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Federal agents have arrested five men in connection to an explosion that rocked New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood Saturday night, injuring 29 people. Though, all officials stopped short of calling the incident an act of terrorism, saying if the investigation determines it was a terrorist act they will call it as such.
Authorities know the bombing was intentional, violent and criminal, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Authorities have been on high alert since Saturday’s blast.
New York Congressman Peter King said the fact that officials had not yet determined a known terrorist link was not necessarily conclusive.
Nine people were wounded at the Crossroads Center shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
The mayor asked citizens to be watchful and report any suspicious activity to local authorities.
Authorities found “components indicative of an IED”, at the West 23rd site, O’Neill said during a news conference Sunday afternoon.
Jason Falconer, a part-time officer in the city of Avon, shot the attacker as he lunged at the officer with his knife.
Police have not said what, if any, forensic evidence they’ve collected from that device. They identified him as Officer Jason Falconer.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
Investigators and bomb experts continued to comb through the scene Sunday, looking for clues that could point to the suspects.
The New Jersey blast occurred in Seaside Park during a Marine Corps charity run and caused no injuries. Whether this unidentified man was in the auto that the Federal Bureau of Investigation pulled over is unclear. “The facts will help us find the culprits and then we can decide what we’re going to call them”. “There will be more”, the man reportedly said.
The second device was found four blocks from the site of the explosion and was removed safely.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the blast an “intentional act”, but said there was no terrorist connection. “It could have been something personally motivated, we don’t know yet”. A personal motivation? What was it?
“We still don’t have anything substantive that would suggest anything more than what we know already, which is this was a lone attacker”.
Investigators say it is likely the blast at 23rd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan about 8:30 p.m. Saturday was caused by a device left in or near a Dumpster. One of three pipe bombs placed in the receptacle blew up.
The blast, in the Chelsea area of Manhattan, injured 29 people.
Witnesses tell us fragments were sent flying when the blast went off. Cuomo on September 18 said that “a bomb exploding in NY is obviously an act of terrorism”, but said there was no evidence of a link to worldwide terrorism. Investigators found a suspicious second device a few hours later, officials said. “It shows me it’s a deliberate act and indicates an act of terrorism”, he said. “We really are very lucky that there were no fatalities”, Cuomo said.
Citing top law enforcement officials, the New York Times said the two devices used flip phones and Christmas lights to detonate the explosive inside. Two Islamist-radicalized brothers from Chechnya committed the attacks to retaliate against USA foreign policy.
But in NY, law enforcement officials and the city’s mayor cautioned that without a known motive, it’s too soon to call the bombing there a terror attack.
Trump, speaking in Colorado Springs, said a “bomb went off” before officials released details of the incident.
Meanwhile, Union County police say the FBI is investigating an incident that has halted NJ Transit trains between Elizabeth and the Newark airport in New Jersey. It is also unknown if that male is related in anyway to those taken into custody Sunday night. “We have some promising leads but no suspects at this time”. The run was cancelled and no injuries were reported. “I think it’s always wiser to wait until you have information before making conclusions”, she said.
The developments in NY – the home state of both US presidential nominees – threaten to put terrorism and national security back at the center of the debate ahead of the November election. Cuomo stated the increased security was “just to err on the side of caution” and added: “I want New Yorkers to be confident when they go back to work on Monday that NY is up and running and we’re doing everything that we need to do”.
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His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton immediately took swipe at her opponent, although later also used the word “bombings” to refer to what had happened in NY and New Jersey.
