The image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was taken on West 27th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on September 17.
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A few minutes later, two men pass by the luggage and appear to admire it, police said.
If it is not possible for Rahami’s physical appearance in court because of the continuing medical treatment, Patton said an attorney from his office could represent the suspect in a telephone or video conference.
Rahami was allegedly responsible for bombs constructed out of a pressure cooker and placed in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on Saturday, as well as pipe bombs in New Jersey’s Seaside Park and Elizabeth.
Preet Bharara, the chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said Wednesday that while terror charges were filed in both NY and New Jersey, the first case would proceed against Rahami in NY.
“The working theory is that there may be others involved”, a law enforcement source said.
NYPD counterterrorism Chief James Waters said it’s a mystery what the men were thinking when they took out the duct tape and wire-wrapped pressure cooker.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday Rahami would face terror charges in NY first, and that the Department of Justice planned to bring him to the city “in the near future”. The two left the device on the street and took the bag.
Law enforcement recovered a “rambling” journal on Rahami when he was captured that referenced Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the ISIS spokesman killed in a USA airstrike, and Anwar al-Awlaki, the American al-Qaida cleric killed in a drone strike, authorities have said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges against him, which include federal terror crimes and state charges of attempting to murder police officers.
Describing Rahami’s actions “premeditated act of terrorism, ” Bharara said Rahami would soon be transferred to NY to face the terror charges.
In one section, the complaint says, Rahami wrote: “Death to your oppression”.
Prosecutors charged Rahami on Tuesday on four counts, including for using weapons of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use.
Officer Peter Hammer comes home from the hospital after getting a hit with a graze wound in the head during arrest of the bombing suspect.
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Rahami, in parts of his journal, praised “Brother” Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader slain in a 2011 US raid in Pakistan; Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric and leading al-Qaeda propagandist who was killed in a 2011 US drone strike in Yemen; and Nidal Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
