Additionally, in 2011 the Rahami family alleged discrimination and harassment in a lawsuit filed against the city and its police department, arguing that officials conspired against them by subjecting them to citations for allegedly violating a city ordinance on hours of operation.
Advertisement
Dark-colored wiring was connected to the pressure cooker by silver duct tape to what appeared to be a cell phone.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was arrested on Monday in Linden, New Jersey, after a gun battle with police.
Having previously ruled out a link between the Manhattan bombing and worldwide terrorism, NY governor Andrew Cuomo has now acknowledged “it may be foreign-related”.
With Rahami’s arrest, officials said they have no indication there are more bombs or suspects to find, though they cautioned that they are still investigating.
Rahami was the subject of a manhunt that culminated with a shootout in New Jersey, where he was captured.
Though FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr., said there is “no indication” of an active operating terror cell in the NY area, evidence suggests Rahami was not acting alone, sources told CNN.
Rahami’s wife left the United States a few days before the bombings, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source.
Eventually, the man changed his mind, claiming that it was just a misunderstanding and the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed the case, without interviewing Ahmad Rahami as well, who, during that time, was in jail after stabbing one of his relatives.
Championing jihad, bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami vowed to martyr himself rather than be caught after setting off explosives in NY and New Jersey, and he’d hoped in a handwritten journal that “the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets”, authorities said Tuesday as they filed federal charges against him.
In a lucky break that helped authorities to thwart a second detonation on Saturday, the men walked away with the bag after taking out what turned out to be a homemade bomb and leaving it exposed on the pavement on 27th Street.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said officials had every reason to believe the series of blasts “was an act of terror”, though investigators said the exact motive was not yet clear. The suit alleged that police officers and city representatives had said “the restaurant presented a danger to the community”.
Rahami was known as “Mad” (abridgment of his name) in his friends circle and in recent years they had noticed a marked change in his personality and religious devotion.
In New Jersey, a pipe bomb blew up in a park shortly before a charity run was due to begin on Saturday morning – and five explosive devices were discovered in a bin at a train station on Sunday night. No one was injured, and two other unexploded bombs were found nearby.
The tavern keeper alerted law enforcement.
Police said he is the man seen in surveillance footage taken Saturday night in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, the site of an explosion that injured 29 people.
She was born in Pakistan, and married Rahami there in 2011.
Investigators also said they found fingerprint and DNA evidence.
Officials believe that Rahami might have been radicalized during his numerous trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan; one visit to Pakistan lasted from April 2013 until March 2014.
Advertisement
His family sued the city of Elizabeth in 2011, accusing it and local police of discrimination, because they were Muslim and Afghans, in forcing them to close their chicken restaurant by 10:00 p.m.
