The Associated Press reported that Mohammad Rahami “said he meant that his son was hanging out with the wrong crowd, including gangs”. Officials said the device had been packed with BBs and ball bearings.
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Rahami’s father said he reported concerns about his son being involved with militants two years ago.
After capturing the bombings suspect this Monday, police officers found a notebook which could provide some essential details about Rahami’s past.
On Monday, Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested after a gunfight with police in Linden, New Jersey, in connection with three bomb incidents in NY and New Jersey.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force opened an investigation into the report.
Officials said they have no other suspects at large but added they are still investigating.
Ahmad Khan Rahami and at least two Linden police officers were injured. He was captured in Linden, New Jersey, after he was discovered sleeping in the doorway of a bar.
“I never thought he would do something like this”, she said through tears.
Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the NYPD say they are interested in speaking to these unidentified individuals and recovering the luggage. A grand jury, however, declined to indict Rahami.
Mohammad Rahami later recanted. He is receiving treatment for his wounds at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, where he could formally face charges if he cannot travel to the US District Court in Manhattan, his lawyer said. The complaint said 31 people were injured in that incident.
Investigators said they believed the 28-year-old suspect planted bombs in New York City, as well as Elizabeth and Seaside Park, N.J. One of the devices exploded in Manhattan Saturday night, wounding 29 people. An unexploded pressure-cooker bomb was found blocks away. Investigators have not publicly tied Rahami to those devices.
Rahami spent more than three months in jail after these charges and was later on released when the grand jury declined to indict him. Sources say they believe he is. Surveillance cameras showed the two men picking up the rolling suitcase, removing the improvised bomb and placing it on the sidewalk, then departing with the piece of luggage.
The images come one week after federal prosecutors charged the Afghan-born man over the NY and New Jersey bombings with four counts including use of weapons of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use.
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Currently, de Blasio said, there are no other suspects, although both the mayor and police commissioner James O’Neill said the city will remain on high alert during the week, especially with the United Nations General Assembly taking place. “But they check nearly two months, they say, ‘He’s O.K., he’s clean, he’s not a terrorist.’ I say O.K”.
