Police direct traffic at a street near the United Nations headquarters in NY, the United States, Sept. 19, 2016.
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The information emerged as Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was being held on $5.2 million bail, charged with five counts of attempted murder of police officers in the shootout that led to his capture Monday.
“The suspect was not on the radar of local law enforcement, but the fried chicken place that. the family owned, we had some code enforcement problems and noise complaints”, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told reporters Monday.
The attacks came as world leaders prepared to gather at the United Nations in NY for the annual General Assembly this week, just days after the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Around the time Rahami was captured, President Barack Obama was in NY on a previously scheduled visit for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
About 135 heads of state or government are expected to attend this week’s event at the United Nations. Cuomo said on MSNBC: “Today’s information suggests it may be foreign-related, but we’ll see where it goes”.
Police in Linden received a call about a man sleeping in a doorway and when one officer, who recognized the person as the bombing suspect, tried to rouse him, Rahami opened fire and hit the officer in the abdomen.
Criminal complaints in Manhattan and New Jersey federal courts provided chilling descriptions of what authorities say drove the Afghan-born US citizen to set off explosives in NY and New Jersey, including a bomb that injured over two dozen people when it blew up on a busy Manhattan street.
Officials said they had no indication there were more bombs or suspects to find, though they cautioned that they were continuing to work to understand Rahami’s connections.
In Elizabeth, N.J., Sunday evening, police say, a backpack resting on top of a trash can near a train station was taken by two people who, upon investigating the contents and finding five bombs, called the cops.
No one has been charged with any crime, and the investigation is continuing, Langmesser said. He also said police were not searching for another suspect linked to bombs placed at two locations in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and two cities in New Jersey.
In the immediate aftermath of the New York bombing, de New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Cuomo were careful to say there was no evidence of a link to global terrorism. He said the second device appeared “similar in design” to the first, but did not provide details.
The bombing investigation began when a pipe bomb blew up Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity race to benefit Marines.
“In August 2014, the FBI initiated an assessment of Ahmad Rahami based upon comments made by his father after a domestic dispute that were subsequently reported to authorities”, the bureau said in a statement.
As the East Coast was rattled by the bombings, a man who authorities say referred to Allah wounded nine people in a stabbing rampage at a Minnesota mall Saturday before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer.
The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) quickly claimed responsibility for the Minnesota attack. But asked whether he thought his son was a terrorist, the father said: “No”.
Sweeney wouldn’t detail how investigators zeroed in on Rahami as someone they wanted to question, but they were known to be poring over surveillance video and examining bomb fragments and components for evidence.
Rahami was shot by police and taken to a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, where he was undergoing surgery.
Also, President Barack Obama, in a televised statement Monday, called on USA citizens to remain vigilant and offered the federal government’s full assistance in the ongoing, multiagency investigation.
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Prof. Shapiro, however, believed it was “not an existential national threat unless there might be chemical or other large-scale attacks”.
