Another official said Rahami traveled overseas a good bit, also visiting countries not in the Middle East.
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UPDATE: Police officials arrested 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami in connection with the bombing.
A loud explosion has shaken the busy Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, injuring 29 people on Sep 17. “We have more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this”.
William Sweeney Jr., the FBI’s assistant director in NY, said there was no indication so far that the bombings were the work of a larger terror cell. Investigators scrambled Sunday to find out who planted a bomb that rocked Chelsea, scouring shrapnel, forensic traces and surveillance video.
Linden, New Jersey, Mayor Derek Armstead says the owner of a bar found the man sleeping in his hallway Monday morning.
“Inshallah (God willing), the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets”, Rahami, who came to the United States at age 7, wrote in a journal he was carrying when arrested.
When a responding officer approached the man, the man raised his head and that’s when the officer recognized him as Rahami, Capt. James Sarnicki with Linden police told CBS2.
As a police vehicle pulled up at the traffic light in front of the shop, the man fired about six shots at the cruiser, then continued down the street with police following him, Bilinskas said.
FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation” of the Manhattan explosion on Sunday night, but few other details have been released.
“He has been held and questioned by federal law enforcement agents since his arrest”, David Patton, head of the NY city federal public defenders office said in a court filing.
The Afghan-born American wanted in connection with weekend bombings in NY and New Jersey was taken into custody on Monday following a shootout with police.
Rahami, wanted for questioning in connection with bombings in NY and Seaside Park, New Jersey, is also believed to be connected to the pipe bombs found in a backpack on Sunday night in Elizabeth, New Jersey, sources said.
What we know: An explosion in a garbage can near a Marine Corps charity run in New Jersey on Saturday is being investigated as a possible terrorist act. No one was injured, but the race was canceled.
Commuter trains are resuming service after one of five devices found in a backpack near a New Jersey train station exploded while a bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm it.
A terrorist-linked news agency claimed that an Islamic State “soldier” carried out the Minnesota stabbing.
Across the world, New York City and its neighboring environs have the reputation of being tough, street-smart places.
An additional 1,000 state troopers and members of the National Guard were placed at transit hubs and other points throughout New York City and extra police officials were patrolling Manhattan, officials said.
The official who spoke to AP insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Around the time Rahami was taken into custody, President Barack Obama was in NY on a previously scheduled visit for a meeting of the UN General Assembly, and said it was “extremely fortunate” nobody was killed in the bombings. An Associated Press reporter went to the building that houses the family’s restaurant and home, but it was cordoned off.
Mohammad Rahami, the suspect’s father, said he had been unaware of his son planning any bombings.
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He wore a private security company uniform, made a reference to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he attacked, according to police and witnesses.
