In light of new evidence, he tells CNN, “I would not be surprised if we did have a foreign connection to the act”.
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“I have no indication there is a cell operating in the area or in the city”, FBI New York division assistant director William Sweeney told reporters Tuesday, trying to allay concerns just hours after the suspect, 28-year-old Ahmad Rahami, was taken into custody after a shootout with police.
The man wanted for bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey is now in custody after a shootout with officers.
“Rahami is a United States citizen of Afghan descent”.
The investigation into an explosion on Satuday in an upper class Manhattan neighborhood is “definitely leading” in the direction of “terrorism”, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
After surgery for a gunshot wound to his leg, Rahami was being held on $5.2 million bail, charged with five counts of attempted murder of police officers.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it now looks like the Manhattan bombing could be an act of terrorism with foreign connection.
“One point they all made is, folks around here, they don’t get scared”.
City, police and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said it was too early to determine any type of motivation, though they insisted they would not shy from labeling the crime an act of terror if it became appropriate to do so. The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. He said the second device appeared “similar in design” to the first, but did not provide details.
A source tells CBS News three cellphones with the two ny devices and one associated with the Seaside Park device are described as flip phones. No cell phones or electronic timing devices were found, Bollwage said.
Authorities this morning identified a suspect in connection with the New York City bombing Saturday evening that injured 29 people. No one was injured.
Late on Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a rubbish bin at a railway station in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Boyce said the two men were seen picking up the bag containing the device, removing it and then leaving with the bag, for reasons that remains unclear. No injuries were reported. But they were known to be poring over surveillance video and analyzing bomb fragments and components, and found similarities in the devices that led them to believe the attacks were the work of the same person or group.
Also on Monday morning, a federal law enforcement official said BBs and ball bearings were among the pieces of metal that appeared to be packed into both pressure cooker bombs in NY. On Sunday night, police blew up the device, rendering it safe. This device and materials from Seaside, N.J., were sent to the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Va., where they and the remnants of the device that exploded will be analyzed, authorities said. Pressure cookers were used in the two bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
Five people were pulled over Sunday night in a vehicle associated with Rahami, but they were questioned and released, Sweeney said, declining to say whether they might face any charges in future. The driver, MD Alam, of Brooklyn, had just picked up three passengers and was driving along 23rd Street when the explosion occurred, shattering the car’s windows and leaving gaping holes in the rear passenger-side door. Officials have been sifting through evidence retrieved from the scenes of the blasts in NY and New Jersey, a stabbing spree in Minnesota, and a backpack loaded with explosive devices discovered in Elizabeth, N.J.
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However, they warn that what does exist can be just as risky – loosely-knit networks of would-be terrorists who support one another, sometimes over the course of many years, even as many prepare to act alone. The bomb went off next to the apartwent building.
