Concerns about NY and New Jersey bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami’s intentions were raised to authorities by his father and a neighbor a few times over the past years, ABC News has learned.
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When JTTF investigators interviewed Rahami’s father, he said the remark was an outburst and that he did not believe his son was a terrorist but didn’t like the people his son spent time with. When officers responded, Rahami pulled out a handgun and opened fire, striking an officer in the chest.
Rahami remains hospitalized. He faces five counts of attempted murder of a police officer.
However, federal authorities are weighing charges over the bombings.
“The investigation is active and ongoing, and it is being investigated as an act of terror”, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in Lexington, Kentucky.
A judge set bail at $5.2 million.
One day after a man suspected of planting bombs in NY and New Jersey was arrested in a shootout with Linden police, the mother of his child filed papers in court seeking sole custody of the girl.
William Sweeney, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s NY division, told reporters during a news conference after Rahami’s arrest Monday that authorities had received information that the suspect had once been involved in some sort of “domestic” dispute, but that he was not presently on the bureau’s radar.
Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested in 2014 on charges of stabbing a person in the leg and possession of a firearm. A grand jury, however, declined to indict Rahami. “And the F.B.I., they know that”.
Police have said his fingerprints and DNA were found at the scene of the Saturday night’s bombing in Manhattan, which wounded 29 people, none seriously. A bulletproof vest saved the officer.
Rahami was born on January 23, 1988, in Afghanistan. No one was injured, and two other unexploded bombs were found nearby.
A childhood friend, Flee Jones, told New Jersey 101.5 that Rahami had become more religious after a trip to Afghanistan several years ago.
The man charged in Saturday’s bombing of a New York City neighborhood harbors a hatred of America and the U.S.
While officials say Rahami traveled to Afghanistan multiple times, and at least once to Pakistan, it’s not clear at all what exactly he did while in those places.
Asia Bibi Rahami is cooperating with investigators, according to a United States official.
Elizabeth resident Ryan McCann said he often ate at the restaurant and recently began seeing Rahami working there more.
According to law enforcement sources, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stopped looking into Rahami after full background and database checks yielded no evidence. Evidence from the cell phone on the pressure cooker also led to Rahami’s identification.
Late Sunday night, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station.
The Rahami family runs First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, NJ.
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.
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His family sued the city of Elizabeth in 2011, accusing it and local police of discrimination because they were Muslim and Afghans, in ordering them to close their restaurant by 10:00 pm.
