New Jersey Police Department on Monday arrested Ahmad Khan Rahami, the main suspect in the NY bombings that left 29 people injured on Saturday.
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The Department of Homeland Security is actively monitoring and participating in the investigations in NY and New Jersey.
– Two officers were hit in the shootout with Rahami in Linden, New Jersey, the mayor of the nearby city of Elizabeth said.
After zeroing in on Rahami and learning of the vehicle that had traveled between New Jersey and NY, authorities pulled it over Sunday night after it headed in the direction of Kennedy airport. His father told reporters that he contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and expressed his concern after the dispute.
US Marshals Service former commander Lenny DePaul told CNN that investigators would be asking Rahami whether he had received any help.
Who is Ahmad Khan Rahami?
Authorities believe the “main guy” has been caught but the investigation continues to determine if Rahami had help.
A notebook found on Rahami may provide some clues into his past.
Rahami wasn’t on any terror or no-fly watch lists, a law enforcement official said, but he’d been interviewed by officials for immigration purposes.
Rahami is originally from Afghanistan. However, Rahami only became a naturalized United States citizen in 2011.
CNN reported that Rahami also travelled to Afghanistan several times, including during at least one of his trips to Pakistan. Investigators are looking into whether or not he was radicalized during those trips overseas.
Rahami, 28, travelled to Quetta in Pakistan, which is said to be a stronghold of Islamic extremists, as well as to Kandahar in Afghanistan, reported United Kingdom daily Independent.
Two years later, in April 2013, he returned to Pakistan and stayed for almost a year.
Upon his return to the U.S., immigration officials asked about these travels, to which Rahami replied that he was visiting family, satisfying any concerns they may have had at the time.
While he was in Pakistan in 2011, Rahami married a Pakistani woman. He filed the paperwork in 2011 and it was approved in 2012. However it’s unclear if she came to the USA at that time.
In 2014, Rahami contacted Congressman Albio Sires’ office from Islamabad, saying he was concerned about his wife’s passport and visa. It turned out her Pakistani passport had expired and the consulate wouldn’t give her an immigrant visa until the passport was renewed, Sires said. Once it was renewed, she discovered she was pregnant. It is unclear what happened to the child.
The arrest came just hours after police issued a bulletin and photo of Rahami, a naturalised U.S. citizen from Afghanistan who lived with family in an apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over a fried-chicken restaurant owned by his father.
The Rahami family sued the city and its police department in 2011, claiming that they were harassed due to their religion. Both said on Monday that appears to be changing.
Hours after a bomb detonated in a Dumpster on West 23rd Street injuring 29 people, the second bomb left exposed by the urban foragers was found on West 27th Street. After he leaves, the video shows two other men removing a white garbage bag believed to contain the pressure cooker from the duffel bag and leaving it on the sidewalk, according to a senior law enforcement official and another source familiar with the video.
But on Monday, authorities said they believe Rahmani is also linked to that explosion.
He was captured four hours later in Linden, NJ., about 20 miles from New York City.
As police searched for Ahmad Rahami on Monday, the owner of a bar in Linden found a man sleeping in his hallway.
When officers responded, Rahami pulled out a handgun and opened fire, striking an officer.
A foot chase ensued, during which Rahami shot at a police auto, causing a bullet to graze another office in the face.
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Now begins the process by investigators to untangle Rahami’s journey from family-owned restaurant worker and naturalised American citizen to suspected terrorist bomb maker. He was taken to a hospital for surgery. His bail has been set at $5.2 million.
