NY bombing suspect Ahmad Rahami surfaced on the FBI’s radar about two years ago when Rahami’s father allegedly referred to his son as a terrorist, a federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY on Tuesday.
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ABC News reported that a dispute at the Rahami home had brought local law enforcement to the house at that time, and that a neighbor told them he’d overheard Rahami’s father calling his son a “terrorist”, according to a USA official.
Eventually, the man changed his mind, claiming that it was just a misunderstanding and the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed the case, without interviewing Ahmad Rahami as well, who, during that time, was in jail after stabbing one of his relatives.
Rahami was arrested on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a shootout with police that left him with multiple wounds.
“He stabbed my son, he hurt my wife – I put him in jail two years ago”, the elder Rahami says.
Officials also found five bombs late Sunday near the Elizabeth train station, about a mile from Rahami’s home. Mohammad Rahami had retracted the statement and meant that his son was simply “hanging out with the wrong crowd, including gangs”, the Guardian reports.
The notebook found on Rahami included references to US-born Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a United States drone strike in Yemen in 2011, and the 2013 Boston bombers, CNN reported.
Authorities believe that Ahmad Khan Rahami is responsible for multiple bombs placed in NY and New Jersey over the weekend.
An anonymous official told the newspaper that the father made the “terrorist” remark out of anger at his son. Mohammad Rahami later recanted.
Surveillance video allegedly shows Rahami on 23rd Street in Chelsea Saturday night, just hours before the explosion that injured 29 people.
Investigators are said to believe that more people were involved in the bombing plots.
William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in NY, said on Monday that that at the time of the bombing, Rahami was apparently not on the FBI’s radar.
“I did what I think every American would have done”, he said. “Now they say he is a terrorist”.
Two officers were shot.
As well as two detonated bombs in Manhattan, a small bomb exploded along the route of a charity run for the Marine Corps in Seaside Park but caused no injuries.
Rahami remains hospitalized and faces five counts of attempted murder of a police officer.
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Investigators have now linked Ahmad to 10 explosive devices surrounding the bombings, including a pressure cooker bomb that injured 29 people after exploding in Chelsea, New York, on September 17.
