(Moshe Weiss via AP).
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Two years before federal authorities took Ahmad Khan Rahami into custody for allegedly plotting this weekend’s bombings in NY and New Jersey, Rahami’s father told the FBI that his son was interacting with “bad people” overseas, and a concerned citizen in the neighborhood told authorities that Rahami’s associates may have been trying to procure explosives, ABC News has learned exclusively.
Authorities outside Mohammad Rahami’s home and business in Elizabeth, New Jersey on Monday.
(New Jersey State Police via AP).
The bombing investigation began when a pipe bomb blew up on Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity race to benefit Marines.
The indictment says video recovered from the mobile phone of a relative of Rahami shows him lighting incendiary material in a cylindrical container two days before the bombings.
NEW YORK (AP) – Investigators of last weekend’s bombings have released an image of two men who took a suitcase they found on a city street, possibly without realizing a wired pressure cooker they removed from it and left behind could have blown them to bits.
The Minnesota attacker was described a “soldier of the Islamic State”, the militant group’s news agency said.
“A lot of technology involved in this, but a lot of good, old-fashioned police work, too”, New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Monday.
“We’re considering them witnesses right now”.
Then a shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bomb exploded on Saturday night in New York’s Chelsea section, wounding 31 people, none seriously.
Rahami’s fingerprint was reportedly found on one of the bombs.
Video of the interaction shows Rahami forging through the scrum to get to his auto.
A few minutes later, two men pass by the luggage and appear to admire it, police said.
It closes with “Inshallah”, God willing, “the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets”.
Court complaints filed Tuesday give a glimpse into what authorities said motivated the Afghan-born US citizen to set off the explosives.
The bombings and subsequent manhunt prompted even greater security in NY.
The judge noted that court rules require an arrested person be brought before the court “without unnecessary delay”.
Though he wasn’t on any watch list, Rahami was interviewed Customs and Border Patrol following his 2014 trip to Afghanistan, which is standard procedure for Americans who visit places like Afghanistan.
“In fact, this question is very much in dispute”, Gorenstein wrote.
Complaints signed by Sgt. Andrew Dellaquila of the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, allege that Rahami fired at each of the officers during a wild shootout on the streets of Linden hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation named him as a suspect.
Rahami is slated to face five counts of attempted murder and two gun charges for his suspected crimes.
William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in NY, said on Monday that that at the time of the bombing, Rahami was apparently not on the FBI’s radar. “Death To Your OPPRESSION”. According to three US law enforcement officials, Rahami’s writings recovered by law enforcement contain references to Osama Bin Laden and American-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. One of the officials said the wife made a statement to authorities after walking into the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.
Emirati officials in Dubai and the federal capital Abu Dhabi said they had no information on her. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing case.
A second unexploded device was found close to the scene of the NY blast – apparently packed with ball bearings, Christmas lights and an explosive, Tannerite.
“I don’t like to think about what could have happened, but I’m just so blessed and glad it didn’t”, Lee Parker said. I said, ‘OK.’ Now they say he is a terrorist.
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Trimble reported from Elizabeth.
