Prior to his capture on September 19, Rahami was involved in a shootout with responding New Jersey officers and has since been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement official.
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Rahami, who faces terror-related charges, remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds from a shootout with police that led to his capture Monday outside a bar in Linden, New Jersey.
Authorities released a photo of Rahami, a naturalized USA citizen from Afghanistan with an address in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Monday.
“They looked like they were two gentlemen just strolling up and down Seventh Avenue, at the time”, Boyce said.
-Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report. He says the president also expressed appreciation for the work of first responders.
Authorities haven’t publicly detailed how they believe he’s connected to the bombings.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, has lived at that address.
William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in NY, said on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had gotten a report of a domestic incident involving Rahami some time ago, but the allegations had been recanted, and “there’s nothing to indicate that now he was on our radar”.
Authorities searched homes in Elizabeth and Perth Amboy, New Jersey, before releasing Rahami’s name and photo and sending a cellphone alert urging the public to call in with any information about him.
Federal court complaints filed Tuesday gave a chilling glimpse into what authorities say motivated Rahami, an Afghan-born US citizen.
An explosion in Manhattan on Saturday injured 29 people. One of the devices exploded as a bomb squad used a robot to try to disarm it. No one was injured in the Jersey blast.
Prosecutors said five pipe bombs had been found in Rahami’s hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
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.
Investigators will now focus on whether he had co-conspirators and on his motive in allegedly bombing New York’s Chelsea neighborhood and detonating a pipe bomb along the route of a U.S. Marine Corps race.
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Earlier on Monday an Afghanistan-born American suspected of detonating the bomb in Chelsea and of planting other devices in NY and New Jersey was arrested following a gun battle with police. Another official said Rahami traveled overseas a good bit, also visiting countries not in the Middle East. “We obviously want to ensure we understand exactly as much as we can about what may have been motivating him”. Officials believe he has been cooperating with a terrorist group that orchestrated the two bombings.
