In this Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 frame from video provided by Orangetheory Fitness Chelsea, a door shatters after an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of NY.
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(Justin Lane/EPA via AP, Pool). Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said earlier that it didn’t appear to be linked to worldwide terrorism. The shootout happened Monday in Linden, New Jersey.
So when the 28-year-old Afghan immigrant was named Monday as the lead “person of interest” in bombings in NY and New Jersey, then apprehended hours later in a shootout with police, people in this gritty neighborhood a few miles from Newark’s airport could scarcely believe it.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, is being sought in connection to the blast that injured 29 people in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, the New York City Police Department said early Monday. Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said one of the devices exploded as police tried to disarm it with a robot.
Earlier Saturday, a garbage can exploded near the starting line of a Marine Corps charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey. No one was injured.
The next day another undetonated explosive device built inside a pressure cooker was found four blocks away.
Trains resumed Monday morning after the New Jersey Transit suspended service going through Elizabeth station on Sunday night.
Investigators said they were still searching for a motive for the blasts, which could have caused far greater damage had they been set off among larger crowds.
Rahami was charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful objective, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say they are still considering charges over those bombings.
It wasn’t known if Rahami had an attorney. Upon returning from both visits he went through secondary screening and told officials he was visiting family, satisfying whatever concerns immigration officials had at the time.
Rahami lived with his family above their fried-chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, and his relatives have clashed with the city over closing times and noise complaints they said were tinged with anti-Muslim sentiment.
Officials in NY say no other suspects are being sought.
Donald Trump said at a campaign rally Monday that it’s “sad” that the suspect in the weekend bombings in NY and New Jersey will receive medical attention and legal representation. At the same time, five people who were pulled over in a vehicle Sunday night were being questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials 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. Officers had been alerted by a bar owner who discovered a man sleeping in the doorway of his premises and thought he was a vagrant.
“He looked like a bum”, Mazza said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation. A second officer was shot in the hand although they are expected to recover.
Two officers were wounded before gunning down the suspected terrorist.
Two officers were believed to be hurt in the shootout with Rahami, who suffered a gunshot to the leg.
Armstead said the man pulled out a handgun and fired at the officers, hitting one in a bulletproof vest.
As local officials have publicly debated for two days how to label the bombings, de Blasio said Monday: “We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror”. The organization and the Afghan Embassy in Washington condemned the bombings.
This is the mobile phone alert that tens of thousands of New Yorkers received on Monday morning. He called on Americans to show the world “we will never give in to fear”.
“He was more quiet and more mature”, Jones said.
Rahami had not previously been identified as unsafe but his family was known to police as a result of late-night noise and crowd complaints at a family halal chicken restaurant in Elizabeth. The Rahamis charged in the lawsuit that they were targeted by local police because they are Muslims.
NBC said the lawsuit was dropped when Mohammad Rahami, the suspect’s father, pleaded guilty. He had recently begun working more frequently at First American Fried Chicken, neighbours said.
“He’s always in there”.
“He’s a very friendly guy, very Americanized. It’s hard when it’s home”, McCann said.
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The Department of Homeland Security is actively monitoring and participating in the investigations in NY and New Jersey.
