Federal prosecutors in NY noted that while they had filed charges against Rahami, he remained in the custody of state officials in New Jersey, who initially arrested him after Monday’s gunfight.
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Police in New York City said they had not yet been permitted by doctors to speak to Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, who was arrested on Monday after being wounded in a gunfight with police in Linden, New Jersey.
Two officers were shot, one in the hand and the other in a bullet-proof vest.
Rahami was wounded in a shootout with police and is in a hospital in New Jersey.
Television footage showed a conscious, apparently calm and alert, bearded Rahami lying on a gurney with blood on his shoulder and then being loaded into an ambulance amid heavy police security.
“We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror”, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the arrest.
Rahami’s last known address was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where a bomb exploded early Monday while being examined by a police robot and he was wanted for questioning in connection with the bombing that wounded 29 people in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. No one was killed in the blasts, but 29 people were injured.
The man suspected of setting off bombs in NY and New Jersey used to work as an unarmed guard at private security companies, including one that provided services to The Associated Press.
Police did not disclose how they zeroed in on Rahami as a person of interest in the bombings but were known to be poring over surveillance video and examining bomb fragments and components for evidence.
A few minutes later, two men pass by the luggage and appear to admire it, police said.
So when the 28-year-old Afghan immigrant was apprehended Monday as the lead person of interest in bombings in NY and New Jersey, those who knew him expressed shock, questioning whether his turn to religiosity in recent years might have hinted at views otherwise kept hidden.
Andre Almeida, a customer at the restaurant for the past eight years, said he noticed Rahami stopped wearing Western clothes after returning from Afghanistan and started wearing “a little more ethnic clothing”. “I said, ‘He’s the guy you guys have been looking for, he’s the guy”. Sires said when her passport was renewed, Rahami’s wife found out she was pregnant and was told she could not get a visa until she had the baby and that the baby also needed a visa, according to CNN. Now, Ismial said he planned to call the mayor and request police protection in front of mosques “just to keep the peace”.
The FBI and state police executed a search warrant at a business in Elizabeth called First American Fried Chicken, which is owned by Rahami’s family.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo added that 1,000 additional New York State Police officers and National Guard troops will be deployed to patrol bus terminals, airports and subway stations.
Derek Armstead – mayor of Linden, New Jersey, where Rahami was captured – said the owner of a bar found him sleeping in his hallway on Monday morning.
Old-fashioned flip phones were found on the devices in Manhattan and in Seaside Park, law enforcement officials close to the investigation told NBC 4 NY.
Two New Jersey police officers wounded in a shootout with the man suspected of setting off bombs in NY and New Jersey have been released from the hospital.
Mr Rahami, an Afghan-born United States citizen, had been named by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a suspect in Saturday’s bombing in Manhattan.
Five explosive devices were discovered at a New Jersey train station on Sunday. He was on no list they probably didn’t want to put him on because they didn’t want to get sued.
Kang reported from Elizabeth, New Jersey.
It took a shoot-out in New Jersey, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation has their guy!
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He is a resident of New Jersey’s Elizabeth neighbourhood and worked in a restaurant that his father, Mohammad, ran.
