Investigators have “some promising leads but no suspects at this time” in the pipe bomb explosion in Seaside Park Saturday along the planned route for a Marine Corps charity 5K, Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday morning.
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The bomb in Seaside Park exploded in a garbage can along the race route on Ocean Avenue near D Street around 9:35 a.m., authorities said. No injuries or damage to surrounding structures were reported.
Investigators scrambled Sunday to find out who planted a bomb that rocked a bustling New York City neighborhood, scouring shrapnel, forensic traces and surveillance video for any link to an unexploded pressure-cooker device found just blocks away. The area was evacuated and placed on lockdown as bomb dogs searched for additional devices.
He said the site of the explosion, outside on a major thoroughfare of a fashionable enclave in one of the most bustling areas of New York City, was being treated as a crime scene.
Officials say the device was timed to detonate during the race which had been delayed while a suspicious rucksack was investigated.
“We were lucky”, a law enforcement official said about the New Jersey blast.
At least one Twitter user tweeted that her “whole high-rise building shook” from a apparent blast.
Two officials briefed on the investigation said preliminary results indicate that the devices in the trash can packed enough explosive punch to cause serious injury to people if the race had actually started on time.
Officials said residents who had been told to leave their homes earlier in the day would be allowed to return Saturday night.
Less than three hours after the NY blast, an object police described as a “possible secondary device” was found just a few blocks away from the original explosion on 27th Street while officers were combing the area.
Ruedin said he soon saw smoke coming from the garbage can and saw other debris in the area, though he didn’t know if those items were parts of the can and/or trash that had been in the receptacle.
“We had been pretty optimistic nearly from the beginning of the weekend when the first explosion happened in Seaside, within a few hours my guys were saying to me, ‘There’s a lot of evidence here – we’re gonna be able to find this guy, ‘” recounted Christie, while co-hosting WFAN’s Boomer and Carton Tuesday morning.
It was not clear when the boardwalk and beach would reopen. He said travel restrictions imposed after the blast had been lifted. MacArthur says that person needs to be “tracked down and brought to justice”.
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Since it was detonated as a race was taking place, the incident immediately drew comparisons to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 that killed three and wounded more than 260.
