Federal prosecutors have charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with setting a bomb in New Jersey and two in New York City, one of which injured 31 people.
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USA prosecutors have formally charged Ahmad Rahami, the suspect who was arrested after weekend bombings in NY and New Jersey in which 29 people were injured.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, a USA citizen born in Afghanistan, was charged by federal officials in two states Tuesday with planting bombs in NY, and at a military charity run and train station in New Jersey.
Federal investigators said that Rahami purchased components for the bombs on eBay, and had them shipped to a business where he worked in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
Federal prosecutors said Rahami bought components online and recorded a video of himself igniting a blast in a backyard.
The journal also had “laudatory references” to Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen, and Nidal Hasan, a United States army doctor who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, USA federal authorities said in the criminal complaint filed.
James Waters, the New York Police Department’s counter-terrorism chief, told reporters there was “no reason to believe” the men are connected to Rahami’s alleged plot. “Two years [ago], I called the Federal Bureau of Investigation – my son, he’s doing very bad, OK?” he told reporters Tuesday morning. Rahami remained hospitalized Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, after a shootout the day before with police in New Jersey.
Ahmad Khan Rahami is taken into custody after a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey.
NYPD officials said recovering the missing suitcase – described as an “airplane tote” with a retractable handle – and speaking with the two men was crucial to the investigation.
He was captured September 19 after being wounded in a gunfight with police in a New Jersey town.
“According to the court complaint, Rahami’s notebook included a passage that said: “You (USA Government) continue your (unintelligible) slaught (er)” against the mujahideen, or holy warriors, in Afghanistan and elsewhere”. He is said to have travelled several times to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he met and married a local girl. Asked whether he thought his son was a terrorist, he said: “No”.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Rahami will be moved to NY to face federal charges in the “near future”.
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USA authorities investigated whether Rahami, the naturalised American citizen captured on Monday, had accomplices in the bombings or if he was radicalised during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact, given that the explosive device was “very shock sensitive”, he said, “they’re very, very lucky”.
