“I want to be very clear that this individual could be armed and unsafe”, said Bill de Blasio, Mayor of NY city. The family operated the First American Fried Chicken restaurant and lived in an apartment above the restaurant.
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The White House said President Barack Obama was briefed throughout the night and early Monday on the investigation into bombs found in New York City and New Jersey. There is very little information on the suspect other than he wore a Blue Jays T shirt and a baseball cap and yelled, “I’m going to get you” according to an eye witness, which seems more personal than political.
While FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr., said there is “no indication” of an active operating cell in the NY area, Rep. Adam Schiff and a National Counterterrorism Center official said that Rahami was not working alone.
On Sunday night, the Federal Bureau of Investigation took five people into custody as they attempted to cross the Verrazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn. The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
William Sweeney, assistant director of the FBI New York Field Office, said there was “no indication of a [militant] cell operating in the city” but added, at this point in the investigation, that investigators are not ruling out anything, including possible foreign involvement.
A man suspected in a series of bombings in NY and New Jersey this weekend that left more than two dozen people injured was caught when police in a nearby city were called about a vagrant sleeping in a doorway, authorities said.
Investigators have “directly linked” him to devices from explosions in NY and New Jersey over the weekend.
On Saturday morning, a pipe bomb exploded near the starting line of a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey. No one was injured in this incident.
Late Sunday, five suspicious devices were found near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. “And in all likelihood the Elizabeth [, N.J.,] train station device-which is a half-mile from his residence”. One of the bombs exploded as a robot tried to disarm it. No injuries are reported. The second – in Seaside Park, New Jersey – was apparently a race organized in this city, but caused no casualties. He was questioned every time he returned to the United States, as is standard procedure, but was not on the radar as someone who might have been radicalized, one official said. On Sunday night, police blew up the device, rendering it safe.
Police have said the sets of bombs were connected.
Homemade pressure cooker bombs were used in the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013 that killed three people and injured more than 260.
Eventually, a compromise was reached with the city and police allowing the restaurant to close at midnight or 1 a.m.
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“We left the house at 9 o’clock”, Michael Kearstan. A spokesman for Bollwage had earlier described the blast as a controlled detonation. It wasn’t immediately clear if the apartment had any connection to the blast. At first he thought it was thunder and lightning. “This is a bomb”.
