Several pipe bombs were also found near a major rail artery in Elizabeth, prompting some commuters to call for New Jersey state lawmakers to get on board with the NY proposal.
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Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage says two men called police and reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package after finding it at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
On Monday morning, police in New Jersey arrested a 28-year-old Afghan immigrant and naturalized citizen, Ahmad Khan Rahami, who hours earlier had been identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a suspect in a bomb blast that rocked the Chelsea section of Manhattan on Saturday night, injuring 29 people, none of them seriously.
But this past weekend authorities say it may have fallen under the same terrorism crosshairs this as a much larger borough: Manhattan.
“But obviously, if you look at a number of these incidents, you can call them whatever you want, they are terrorism though”. There’s no doubt about that.
“Maybe it could stop something, but sadly to say, if they are determined to do it, somehow they will find a way”, says commuter Kahali Johnson.
Local police now routinely work to identify potential threats, but getting people to report anything out of the ordinary to police can be even more important, Dearth said.
“The fortunate thing here in New Jersey is that no one was injured”, the Republican said on CNN’s “Inside Politics” with Jake Tapper. Two of the bombs detonated, leaving 29 people injured.
The Seaside Park 5K bombing evoked memories of the 2013 terrorist bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.
Special Agent Michael Whitaker, a spokesman for the FBI office in Newark, said state and federal investigators were still canvassing the Seaside Park area Sunday and conducting interviews. The race was canceled.
Registration problems at the starting line delayed the start of the race, which meant no one was near the garbage can when the explosion happened, a law enforcement official said.
Later on Saturday a bomb was set off in New York City that left 29 injured.
The Democratic governor also said that 1,000 additional law enforcement officers were being deployed as a precaution. Authorities have not yet determined who is behind the blast or a motive.
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Authorities found a second device in Manhattan a few blocks away from the one that exploded and removed it. But after thinking about it for a minute, Ruedin said he thought to himself “that was one hell of a start to a race”.
