An Afghan immigrant wanted for questioning in the bombings that rocked a New York City neighborhood and a New Jersey shore town was captured Monday after being wounded in a gun battle with police that erupted when he was discovered sleeping in a bar doorway, authorities said.
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Police suspect Rahami was also behind a bomb that exploded in a New Jersey beach town on Saturday, as well as leaving the device found on the sidewalk after the NY blast.
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.
Surveillance video reportedly shows the same man dropping off a bomb on that street, as well as another street where an unexploded IED was later found.
Around the time Rahami was taken into custody, President Barack Obama was in NY on a previously scheduled visit for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, and said it was “extremely fortunate” nobody was killed in the bombings.
The explosion came only hours after the explosion of pipe bombs in New Jersey along the course of a Marine Corps charity run.
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.
While officials described the weekend bombs and the Minnesota attack as deliberate, criminal acts and said they were investigating them as potential acts of terrorism, they stopped short of characterizing the motivation behind any of them until more evidence is uncovered. The lawsuit was terminated in 2012 after Mohammad Rahami pleaded guilty to blocking police from enforcing the restrictions on the restaurant. Search warrants that we did Sunday night at the residence in Elizabeth.
Some 135 heads of state or government are expected to attend this week’s event at the United Nations, and city officials said they had bolstered an already heavy security force with 1,000 more uniformed police officers and National Guard members. “Don’t touch anything you think is weird (and) contact a (law enforcement) agency and we’ll send a team down and look at what you found”, Clinton police Chief Ford Hayman said.
The information emerged as Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was being held on $5.2 million bail, charged with five counts of attempted murder of police officers in the shootout that led to his capture Monday. Eastern time. The New York Police Department bomb squad and counterterrorism units responded to the scene.
His last known address was in Elizabeth, the same city where the backpack with explosives was found Sunday night.
Hours after the Saturday night blast that injured 29 people in Manhattan, there seemed to be more questions than answers. The New Jersey race was cancelled and no one was injured.
NYPD and FBI Bomb technicians rendered the device safe.
Rahami was identified Sunday afternoon through a fingerprint, a senior law enforcement official said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump loosely associated the attacks in NY and New Jersey with ISIS in a statement published on his official campaign website.
President Obama has been briefed on the situation, according to a White House official.
On Sunday, Cuomo had effectively ruled out a link to global terrorism, saying there was no evidence to suggest that. Investigators found similarities between the explosives used in both states, according to multiple law enforcement officials, but authorities said they have not concluded the incidents are linked.
“We know it was a very serious incident, but we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this”, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Sunday. One said he arrived from Afghanistan with his family as a young child.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he could be armed and unsafe.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged a massive showing of security Monday as world leaders gather in Manhattan, two days after a bombing in the borough injured 29 people.
