The bomb was placed along the route of a charity race but no one was injured as the start of the race had been delayed.
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Ahmad Khan Rahami is taken into custody after a shootout with police September 19 in Linden, N.J.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said a pair of homeless men took the backpack because they thought it contained valuables, dropped it when they realized what was inside and went to the police station to alert officers.
A Democratic New Jersey congressman, Albio Sires, said Rahami contacted his office from Pakistan in 2014 seeking help because his wife had an expired Pakistani passport.
Marcella Perrotti, 44, owner of the Short Cutz Unisex Salon half a block away, said the Rahami family members kept to themselves and did not mix with the close-knit group of local shop owners. One officer was shot in the vest and another was shot in the hand, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said to the news source. The explosions did not cause any fatalities but the Chelsea explosion injured 29 people.
The shootout came after a weekend of fear and dread in NY and New Jersey, with authorities saying the bombings were looking increasingly like an act of terrorism with a foreign connection.
Rahami is considered armed and risky.
Rahami is a suspect in three separate weekend incidents in the NY metropolitan area.
His last known address was in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
An FBI Bomb Squad arrived on scene and a robot was sent to examine the devices.
Authorities described Rahami as 5-foot-6 and approximately 200 pounds. Rahami has brown hair, brown eyes, and brown facial hair.
“The investigation is moving rapidly”, President Obama said Monday during a news conference in NY, where he is attending this week’s U.N. General Assembly. He added he had spoken to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.
“We all have a role to play as citizens to make sure we don’t succumb to that fear”. Founded in 1846, AP has covered all the major news events of the past 165 years, providing high-quality, informed reporting of everything from wars and elections to championship games and royal weddings. He underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the leg. “I said, ‘Oh, where have you been?’ And he said, ‘Oh, vacation.’ But I knew he went to Afghanistan because his little brother said it”. “Things are moving very quickly, and certainly we’re going to have a lot more to say in just the next coming hours”. Then, late Sunday, five pipe bombs were found in a trash can near an NJ Transit station in Elizabeth New Jersey.
Authorities believe the three bombing incidents this weekend in Seaside Park, New Jersey, New York City, and Elizabeth, New Jersey, are related.
The arrest just hours after police issued a bulletin and photo of Rahami, a naturalized US citizen from Afghanistan who lived with Muslim family in an apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over a fried-chicken restaurant owned by his father.
In 2005, Rahami’s father filed for bankruptcy protection, saying in court documents that he had just $100 in the bank and $38,609 in debt, mostly from credit cards.
Donald Trump called for using “whatever lawful methods are available” to get information from Rahami, mocked the fact that he would receive quality medical care and legal representation, and called for profiling foreigners who look like they could have connections to terrorism or certain Mideastern countries.
Amtrak shut down service on its Northeast corridor between NY and Trenton, New Jersey, because of the police activity.
Sunday night: At a train station in Elizabeth, N.J., Federal Bureau of Investigation technicians working on one of five bombs in a backpack that was initially discovered in a trash can detonate the bomb.
Shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday, the FBI and NYPD conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle of interest in the investigation, according to a statement from FBI. Both said Monday that appears to be changing.
Officials believe he is connected to a blast in Chelsea in Manhattan that injured 29 people and at least one explosion in New Jersey. An unexploded pressure cooker was found nearby. Spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will comment publicly later Monday.
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