Police have since connected the New York City and New Jersey shore town bombings and say the same man is being sought for questioning in both.
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New Jersey State Police said Monday, citing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that the bombings in Chelsea and the New Jersey shore town Seaside Park were connected. He appeared to be conscious and looking around. Authorities have said a bulletproof vest saved Padilla from a more serious injury.
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said that the owner of a bar reported someone asleep in the doorway of his business.
Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested in 2014 on charges of stabbing a person in the leg and possession of a firearm.
Mohammad Rahami told reporters outside his chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Tuesday morning that he called law enforcement twice.
Obama added that investigators saw “no connection” at this moment between the bombings in New Jersey and NY and a stabbing in Minnesota.
Five people were pulled over Sunday night in a vehicle associated with Rahami, but they were questioned and released, Sweeney said, declining to say whether they might face any charges in future. There is “nothing to indicate” that Rahami was previously on the FBI’s radar, he said. New York’s emergency management department says that New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains are being held at New York Penn Station.
Then a shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bomb similar to those used in the Boston Marathon attack exploded Saturday night in New York’s Chelsea section, wounding 29 people, none seriously.
After touring the site of Saturday’s blast that injured 29 people in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there didn’t appear to be any link to global terrorism.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said the devices were found in a bag in a trash bin by two men who reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. But authorities have not drawn any connection between the bloodshed there and the bombings.
The intense investigation into the weekend bomb blasts in NY and New Jersey is leading authorities to signs of a possible terror cell in those two states, law enforcement officials told CNN Monday.
“We will be deploying close to an additional 1,000 New York State Police and National Guard people to police the bus terminals, airports and subway stations”, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
“We always have to be in a state of alert in NY city”, he said, adding “We are the number one target in the world”.
President Obama also arrived in NY for the meeting, USA Today reported.
He called on Americans to show the world “we will never give in to fear”.
“We all have a role to play as citizens to make sure we don’t succumb to that fear”. President Obama was scheduled to hold separate meetings Monday afternoon in NY with Premier Li Keqiang of China and with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq. “Hopefully we can get them identified”. The Rahami family lives in the apartment.
FBI investigators were seen collecting evidence from the apartment Monday morning.
Still, some of the restaurant’s customers said Rahami was more likely to talk about his interest in cars.
“He’s always in there”.
“He’s a very friendly guy”, patron Ryan McCann said. “Just assume there could be a terrorist attack anytime, anywhere”, Cuomo said. “I think that’s going to tell us a lot as to whether it was a lone wolf or something bigger”, the mayor said. Authorities were trying to determine if they were connected. Spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will comment publicly later Monday.
After calling the Chelsea explosion “intentional”, but with no proof of terrorist intent, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that the investigation into the blast is “definitely leading” toward terror.
Investigators said they found similarities between this device and the bomb that exploded in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood Saturday evening, but have not linked the two events at this time. No one was hurt.
Late Sunday, five suspicious devices were found near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
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Federal authorities now believe the weekend explosion that injured 29 people in Chelsea, where another explosive device was found nearby, was linked to as many as six explosive devices found in Elizabeth, N.J., Homeland Security officials told Reuters.
