President Obama on Monday praised the work of law enforcement officials who arrested the man believed to be responsible for bombings in NY and New Jersey.
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Following a weekend bomb blast at an upmarket neighbourhood in Manhattan, New York, which injured 29 people, tensions ratcheted up with the discovery of five pipe bombs near a train station in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey, just over 20km away.
Another official said Rahami traveled overseas a good bit, also visiting countries not in the Middle East.
When officers responded, Rahami pulled out a handgun and opened fire, striking an officer.
Officials said at least one of his relatives was in the vehicle, which appeared to be going towards JFK airport in NY after coming from New Jersey. Neither officer sustained injuries that are life-threatening.
But two big questions remain. While there in July 2011, Rahami married a Pakistani woman. When he returned to the United States he was once again taken into secondary questioning and told officials he was visiting his wife, as well as his uncles and aunts.
Born in Afghanistan, he worked at his family’s fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and is a U.S. citizen.
He is 28 and was born in Afghanistan.
Two men discovered five explosive devices in Elizabeth, N.J. inside a bag placed in a trash can on Sunday evening near the New Jersey Transit’s Northeast Corridor rail line. Schiff, a California Democrat, is ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Obama is urging Americans to report suspicious activity to law enforcement.
– A traffic stop Sunday night of five people in NY led to searches and interviews in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Sweeney said. Bains first spotted him about 6:45 a.m. on a bench outside Merdie’s Tavern, which is about 3 miles south of where police found a backpack containing bombs the night before. He was described as a naturalised citizen who had been living with his family in Elizabeth, not far from where he was arrested.
The suspect wanted by police in relation to the bomb blast in the NY has been captured.
He 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 before he was Mr Rahami was shot and captured.
Juliette Kayyem, a counterterrorism expert and former Homeland Security official, says it’s too soon to know if the incidents are connected to global terror.
Neighbors had complained to Elizabeth officials that the Rahamis’ restaurant was a late-night nuisance, Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said.
In this interview, WNYC’s Jami Floyd talks with WNYC’s Robert Lewis about how police used the emergency alert system to tell residents about Rahman, and to WNYC’s Karen Rouse about how Rahami’s arrest is resonating in the community where he lived.
The FBI was leading the investigation and was working to disarm the other four devices. “They’ve been suing the City of Elizabeth and the administration”. Both New Jersey Transit and Amtrak warned of train delays after the incident. The man then began firing as he ran down the street and police shot him in the leg.
Armstead told ABC News that a police officer went to investigate the man sleeping in the hallway of the bar and wake him up.
He was not on federal or NYPD terror watch lists and officials said on Monday that they did not believe he was part of a terror cell.
The homeless men found the package going through a garbage can, Bollwage was quoted as saying.
The device was taken to the NYPD Bomb Squad facility, where NYPD and Federal Bureau of Investigation bomb technicians rendered the device safe. A forensic examination of the device will be sent to the FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, police said.
A federal law enforcement official said BBs and ball bearings were among the pieces of metal that appeared to be packed into the pressure cooker bombs in NY.
The pipe bomb that exploded Saturday in Seaside Park went off before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors.
No one was wounded in that blast.
But the undetonated bomb left behind offered several key pieces of evidence that helped police track down Rahami, including his fingerprint and the cellphone, which was similar to the timing mechanism used in another botched bombing on Saturday in New Jersey.
But on Monday, authorities said they believe Rahmani is also linked to that explosion.
President Barack Obama, in NY at the UN General Assembly with world leaders, called on Americans “not to succumb to fear” as presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sparred over how best to combat terror attacks.
“The more we learn with each passing hour is it looks more like terrorism”, de Blasio said in a later interview on NY1 News.
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Heightened security across the city is common during the UNGA.
