The person wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Advertisement
Mayor Bill de Blasio said 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami could be armed and risky. Two officers were shot, one in the hand and the other in a bullet-proof vest, he said.
Police are probing a link to other explosions in NY and New Jersey.
Law enforcement officials are searching for a 28-year-old suspected of playing a role in the bombings that have occurred over the last three days in NY and New Jersey.
He was wanted for questioning in connection with the blasts in NY and New Jersey, and the backpack containing explosives in Elizabeth.
No one was injured in the blast – most likely because registration problems delayed the start of the race, so no one was near the garbage can when the explosion happened.
The discovery came after a small pipe bomb exploded in the New Jersey town of Seaside Park on Saturday morning, shortly before a charity run for U.S. marines and sailors.
Additional Red Bank police officers are on patrol Monday morning in the borough in the wake of bombs left at a train station in Elizabeth early Monday morning, police said. No one was injured.
Five others were taken into custody Sunday night and are being questioned by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in New York City.
Ahmad Khan Rahami has lived at that address in Elizabeth, which is above a fried chicken store.
Bollwage said it was unclear whether Elizabeth, a city with a population of almost 130,000 people that is less than 15 miles southwest of Manhattan, was targeted or if the backpack might have been discarded to elude investigators.
A second pressure-cooker bomb was placed four blocks away but did not detonate.
Despite the timing of the attacks, authorities have yet to draw a connection between the series of explosions.
A pipe bomb also exploded Saturday in a New Jersey shore town ahead of a 5K.
Two men had reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of a package after finding it at the train station around 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
No injuries have been reported in either case.
“Amtrak Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other services will operate Monday with some schedule modifications”, posted Amtrak.
Five devices were found near the train station. Amtrak shut down service on its Northeast Corridor between NY and Trenton, NJ due to the police activity.
NJ Transit said that PATH, ferry services, NJT and private carrier buses are cross-honoring rail tickets and passes.
“The robots that were going it to disarm it cut a wire and it exploded”, the mayor told CNN.
Bollwage said that the men are being questioned at police headquarters but are not suspected of building or planting the device.
But on Monday morning, police continued searching Linden and Elmora streets, close to where the backpack was found. Two men discovered a backpack with explosive devices inside on September 18, and one detonated as technicians attempted to disarm it. “I don’t know what they’re made up of”, said Bollwage of the package. There were no timers or cell phones found with the bombs, Bollwage said, prompting investigators to believe they had been discarded quickly. New York’s emergency management department says that New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains are being held at New York Penn Station. The FBI soon arrived on the scene and discovered that the package was actually a backpack that contained “multiple improvised explosive devices” (IEDs). That explosion occurred shortly before 1 a.m. ET Monday.
Two men discovered five devices in a trash can Sunday night and informed the authorities, according to Christian Bollwage, the mayor of Elizabeth city.
Robots disarmed the bombs, but in the process, one detonated. The FBI confirmed the discovery of devices and the explosion. The accidental explosion triggered conflicting reports regarding whether police intended a controlled detonation.
NBC News, citing a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation, said authorities believe Rahami is the man seen in surveillance footage Saturday night in Chelsea.
Advertisement
Mayor Bollwage said that five separate pipe bomb devices were found inside the bag and that those devices were pulled from the bag and separated so that they could be inspected.
