Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and police have converged on an apartment near a New Jersey train station where one of five devices found in a backpack exploded while a bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm it.
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U.S. authorities were searching on Monday for an Afghanistan-born American in connection with a New York City bombing that left dozens injured and could be linked to pipe bombs found in New Jersey.
Thieves inadvertently helped the police find a bomb in New York’s fashionable neighbourhood of Chelsea, it emerged on Monday after the suspect wanted for planting the device and detonating another was arrested.
“Prosecutors will be careful because they want to make sure they have all of the elements of a crime, but you set off two bombs in New York City, Charlie, that is terrorism”.
The ongoing investigation, which includes two bombs in New York City and devices in two cities in New Jersey, has given authorities leads on specific people who are urgently being sought. Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said that up to five devices were found inside a backpack, and one of them exploded as it was being disarmed at around 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Cuomo had said Sunday that there was no evidence to suggest that the bombing was related to global terrorism, but he appeared to walk that back Monday.
After the bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill deBlasio went to great lengths to assure New Yorkers that global terrorism was not involved.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it was clearly “an act of terrorism”, although it hadn’t been linked to an global terrorist group.
As a police vehicle pulled up at the traffic light in front of the shop, the man fired about six shots at the cruiser, then continued down the street with police following him, Bilinskas said.
Sources told NBC that Ahmad Rahami of Elizabeth, New Jersey was the man seen on surveillance video in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night when a blast wounded 29 people.
Cellphones were discovered at the site of both the NY and New Jersey bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to comment on the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Bollwage said he was “extremely concerned for the residents of the community” if “someone could just go and drop a backpack into a garbage can that has multiple explosives in it”.
Cell phones were discovered at the site of both bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment on an ongoing investigation. Less than three hours later, a “possible secondary device” was found a few blocks away on 27th Street while officers were combing the area.
The Rahamis charged in the lawsuit that they were targeted by neighbors because they are Muslims. “There is no link at this time at this preliminary stage to worldwide terrorism”, he said, adding that police will consider any motive, terroristic, political or personal.
The pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors.
Authorities already have a “number of people” in custody in connection with the bombing, and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents launched an “operation” at an address on Elmoa Street in Elizabeth, N.J., where members of the Rahami family reside and work, according to court records, the Post reports.
“But again, I was a former attorney general in NY and I participated in many of these investigations”.
People are now coming and going as usual in the Manhattan neighborhood rocked by a bomb – although jarring reminders of the weekend blast remain.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill, center, and FBI Assistant Director Bill Sweeney, right, hold a news conference announcing the arrest of bombing suspect Ahmad Kahn Rahami. We’re following this story on Eyewitness News.
