A suspect wanted over the US bombings at the weekend, which injured 29 people has been charged with five counts of attempted murder.
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The man suspected of planting bombs in NY and New Jersey may have aimed to inflict carnage incognito, but he didn’t succeed for long in concealing his identity.
Prosecutors say they are still considering charges over those bombings.
The alert, issued shortly after police publicly identified a suspect sought in Saturday’s bomb explosion, read, “WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male”.
In 2014, Rahami was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and unlawful weapons possession after allegedly stabbing someone in the leg, but a Union County grand jury declined to indict him, The New York Times reported.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who spoke by phone with some of the officers involved in the arrest, praised police for the quick apprehension and said he saw no connection between the explosions and a separate weekend incident where a man stabbed nine people at a mall in central Minnesota before being shot dead.
Fifteen years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, officials say lone-wolf attacks perpetrated by individuals who may be inspired by IS or Al-Qaeda propaganda are the greatest terror threat to the homeland.
The blast in Chelsea injured 29 people, though all have since been released from the hospital. “I said, ‘Oh, where have you been?’ And he said, ‘Oh, vacation.’ But I knew he went to Afghanistan because his little brother said it”.
Mohammad Rahami, who owns the fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that was raided by Federal Bureau of Investigation and other officials as law enforcement escalated their manhunt for the suspect, had little else to say about his son’s arrest.
“There was not too much joking after Ahmad got back”, Jones said.
Monday afternoon, charges were laid against Rahami including 5 counts of attempted murder, and 2 weapons charges.
Authorities are still trying to determine whether there is a connection to the Chelsea blast, a separate pressure-cooker type undetonated explosive found nearby and a pipe-bomb explosion near a New Jersey train station.
Falling one week after the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and seven weeks before the USA presidential election, the incidents prompted NY state officials to tighten security, just as the annual UN General Assembly debates ramp up this week. The lawsuit was terminated in 2012 after Mohammad Rahami pleaded guilty to blocking police from enforcing the restrictions on the restaurant. The officer was saved by his bulletproof vest. Two officers were shot in the chaos, but are expected to make full recoveries. More officers joined in a battle that spilled into the street.
During the shootout, another bullet smashed through the window of a police cruiser.
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The case alleged the Rahamis were “threatened and harassed” by a police officer. He called on Americans to show the world “we will never give in to fear”.
