“This is someone who was likely involved in one way or another” with the explosion Saturday in the Chelsea neighborhood that wounded 29 people, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN’s New Day.
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The FBI has faced questions before about whether it could have done more ahead of time to determine whether attackers had terrorist aspirations. Asked whether he thought his son was a terrorist, he said: “No”. He says he’s spoken to the governors of New Jersey and NY and pledged all needed federal assistance.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said there were “certain commonalities among the bombs”, that went off in New York yesterday and New Jersey today, leading authorities to believe “that there was a common group behind the bombs”. Both said Monday that appears to be changing.
NYPD chief Robert Boyce said two petty thieves had accidentally helped to discover one device, after they took the second bomb found on 27th street out of the unattended package it was in.
Late Sunday, law enforcement officials said they were still looking to see if the explosions in NY and New Jersey were related.
Officials said they had no indication there were more bombs or suspects to find, though they cautioned that they were continuing to work to understand Rahami’s connections.
Police engaged in a shootout with Rahami on September 19 and was taken into custody in an ambulance on a stretcher with an injury to his right shoulder.
No one was injured in the other blasts. Masum Chaudry, who manages a Domino’s Pizza near the scene, said the explosion “shook the whole building” and caused “total chaos”.
“You will see them”, Cuomo said. Another pressure-cooker device was found nearby before it went off. Pressure cookers were used in the two bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
“I must have heard maybe 15 or 20 shots”.
The explosion happened in Chelsea, Manhattan, on Saturday. Cuomo said on “CBS This Morning”.
“What we didn’t know yesterday, and we don’t know yet, is: Is anyone taking credit for it and is it linked to worldwide terrorism?” But Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who received a classified briefing from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Rahami was not cooperating; that could also be a reflection of his injuries.
What we don’t know: Whether it’s part of a weekend of co-ordinated attacks. We do not know the nature of it. “That’s the world we’re living in now”, New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill said during a press conference Monday.
He was expected to comment Monday afternoon after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (HY’-dahr ahl ah-BAH’-dee) on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in NY. Officials said they had already prepared to beef up security, and now they would intensify those efforts.
President Obama called New Yorkers tough and resilient.
‘The investigation is active and ongoing, and it is being investigated as an act of terror, ‘ US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in Lexington, Kentucky on Tuesday.
The events also fueled the debate about America’s security challenges seven weeks before the presidential election, with candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton clashing once again on Monday.
“They looked like they were two gentlemen just strolling up and down Seventh Avenue at the time”. He says several people were taken to hospitals with injuries.
The pipe bomb exploded Saturday in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. MacArthur says it was a stroke of luck that no one was hurt.
Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of NY, said he believed Rahami would be charged with shooting the police officers Monday in Linden. The law enforcement officials said at least one of Rahami’s relatives was in the vehicle, which appeared headed toward Kennedy Airport in NY after coming from New Jersey.
The New York Police Department says it is looking for a 28-year-old man for questioning in the New York City bombing. The explosive material found in New Jersey was a black powder.
The official says two officers were shot in the encounter in Linden, New Jersey.
For example, the FBI’s Miami office had investigated Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando in June and expressed allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State organisation, for 10 months and interviewed him twice. It was not clear if there was any connection between those explosives and the earlier attacks.
They were summoned by a neighbourhood bar owner, who found the bombing suspect sleeping against his closed tavern’s front door.
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“I hope this is something else”, he said.
