Federal agents opened an investigation into Ahmad Khan Rahami in 2014 after they received a call from Mohammad Rahami, two unidentified senior law enforcement officials told The New York Times.
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Federal prosecutors in NY and New Jersey issued criminal complaints Tuesday evening charging Rahami in weekend bombings in both those states.
50 hours after an explosion in NY, the police arrested the suspected NY bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami.
Ahmad Khan Rahami arrested on Monday for involvement in the New York, New Jersey explosions.
Video recorded two days before the bombings and recovered from a family member’s phone shows him igniting incendiary material in a cylinder, then shows the fuse being lighted, a loud noise and flames, followed by billowing smoke and laughter, the complaints said.
He was captured on Monday while carrying a handwritten journal that lauded Osama bin Laden and US-born Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, and criticized U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, it said.
Those and other clues spurred officials to publicize his name and photo Monday morning, asking for help finding Rahami, 28, a US citizen born in Afghanistan, who lives with his Muslim family in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The FBI released a picture of two men who were videotaped unpacking a pressure cooker bomb from a suitcase in Chelsea on Saturday night, and is asking the public for help finding them. The blasts came two years after the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into him but came up with nothing tying him to terrorism.
The court complaints describe Rahami buying bomb-making equipment so openly between June and August that he ordered citric acid, ball bearings and electronic igniters on eBay and had them delivered to a Perth Amboy, New Jersey, business where he worked until earlier this month.
In 2014, Rahami contacted Congressman Albio Sires’ office from Islamabad, saying he was concerned about his wife’s passport and visa.
The reason for the trip and its full impact on Rahami was not immediately known, but Jones said Rahami became more serious and quiet.
While he was in Pakistan in 2011, Rahami married a Pakistani woman.
As the East Coast was rattled by the bombings, a man who authorities say referred to Allah wounded nine people in a stabbing rampage at a Minnesota mall Saturday before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer.
The FBI never interviewed Ahmad Rahami, according to officials. Thirty-one people were injured in the NY blast.
One of the officials said Wednesday that Ahmad Khan Rahami’s wife made a statement to authorities after walking into the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Rahami was the sole suspect so far.
Those interests have got investigators wondering if anyone else might have contributed to last weekend’s violence, which local and federal officials say was a terrorist act.
Rahami had not previously been identified as unsafe but his family was known to police as a result of late-night noise and crowd complaints at a family halal chicken restaurant in Elizabeth.
Video footage reviewed by investigators captured two men picking up a bag that contained the device, removing the pressure cooker and leaving with the bag, said Robert Boyce, chief of detectives for the NY police.
AP spokesman Paul Colford said the news cooperative told law enforcement officials about Rahami’s work in Cranbury.
– Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
Rahami appears calm as he wheels the piece of luggage behind him.
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Rahami and two police officers were wounded in the exchange of gunfire before his arrest.
