Late Monday, a hospitalized Rahami was charged in New Jersey with five counts of attempted murder of police officers in connection with the shootout and was held on $5.2 million bail. While details about the bombing and motive are still scarce, Bollwage said Elizabeth might not have actually been the intended target of the explosive, noting, “it is very possible that someone was trying to get rid of a package, as opposed to setting it off”.
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Rahami pulled a gun and shot the officer – who was wearing a bulletproof vest – in the torso, and more officers joined in a running gun battle along the street and brought Rahami down, police Capt. James Sarnicki said.
On the day suspicious backpacks containing five explosive devices were found in New Jersey’s Elizabeth city, the NY police said on Monday they are looking for an Afghan national for the Chelsea bombing that injured 29 persons. On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station.
Rahami is now wanted for questioning in connection with both the Saturday explosion in New York City and the Seaside Park explosion in New Jersey, according to CNN.
State Senator Marty Golden, who represents parts of Brooklyn, said on Instagram that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had made the arrest on the Belt Parkway, underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Rahami’s father, Mohammad, and two of Rahami’s brothers sued the city in 2011 after it passed an ordinance requiring their restaurant, First American Fried Chicken, to close early because of complaints from neighbors that it was a late-night nuisance. No one was injured, but one of the explosives detonated while a robot was being used to disarm it.
Around 1,000 state police and National Guard troops will be dispatched to patrol the city, Cuomo said.
On Sunday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said it didn’t appear the attacks were connected.
The attacks, coming as world leaders gathered in New York City for the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting, heightened concern that similar assaults could be mounted elsewhere, especially in public places with large crowds that are hard to protect.
Cuomo says: “Today’s information suggests it may be foreign related, but we’ll see where it goes”. “My operating premise is anytime, anywhere, seven days a week you could have an incident like this”.
“We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror”, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the arrest, which came about 36 hours after a shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bomb similar to those used in the Boston Marathon bombing injured 29 people in New York’s Chelsea section, none seriously.
The White House says President Barack Obama was briefed throughout the night and early Monday on the investigation into bombs found in New York City and New Jersey.
FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser said agents stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation” of the Manhattan explosion on Sunday night.
A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood appears to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about an ongoing investigation. One source says it is still unclear if this is the work of one suspect (potentially with unwitting associates), or the deliberate work of a broader group.
The blast is understood to have originated from a device placed in a pressure cooker outside the Associated Blind Housing facility at 135 West 23rd Street.
An official told Fox News on Sunday that the bombs in New Jersey and NY were “from the same person” and the devices in both explosions included mobile phones.
Cellphones were discovered at the site of both bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to comment on an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
And in New Jersey, officials said they didn’t yet know whether a pipe bomb that went off before a charity run at a seashore resort Saturday morning was linked to any terror group. The race was canceled.
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The explosions came days before world leaders prepared to gather at the United Nations in NY for the annual General Assembly. The St. Cloud police chief said the man reportedly made at least one reference to Allah and asked a victim if he or she was Muslim before attacking.
