A third explosion took place earlier Saturday morning near Seaside Park, New Jersey shortly before thousands of runners were scheduled to participate in a U.S. Marine Corps race.
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Rahami is a 28-year-old American citizen who lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey and was born in Afghanistan.
A second unexploded device was found close to the scene of the NY blast. Federal prosecutors said they were still weighing charges over the bombings.
Bombings in NY and New Jersey over the weekend as well as the discovery of several unexploded devices have led authorities to believe there may be a terror cell at work in those two states, law enforcement officials told CNN on Monday.
Since being detained Rahami, who was not on U.S. anti-terrorism databases, has undergone surgery for a gunshot wound to the leg.
Rahami was captured during a shootout with law enforcement in Linden.
Meanwhile, authorities are investigating the stabbings of nine people at a Minnesota mall as a potential act of terrorism.
Authorities identified two officers hit in the shootout as Angel Padilla, who was shot in the midsection, and Peter Hammer, who was grazed in the head by either a bullet or window glass. Both are expected to recover.
“It’s certainly leaning more in the direction that this was a specific act of terror”, New York Mayor de Blasio told ABC. Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said earlier that it didn’t appear to be linked to global terrorism.
He would not say who or what was found in the vehicle, but said members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force spotted the individuals leaving a location associated with Rahami and performed a traffic stop in Brooklyn near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Surveillance videos helped track the wanted man down.
Rahami’s father and brothers had long nursed tensions with neighbors and officials in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over the restaurant’s late hours, a conflict the family claimed in a lawsuit was the result of discrimination against them as Muslims. No one was injured, and the event was canceled.
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.
On Saturday night, a shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bomb similar to those used in the Boston Marathon attack exploded in New York’s Chelsea section, wounding 29 people, none seriously. “He loved his Civics, he loved going fast”, said Ryan McCann, a frequent customer at First American Fried Chicken, the restaurant that Rahami’s father, Mohammed Rahami, has run since 2002.
Here’s a look at the numbers behind terrorist attacks in the United States.
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.
Police suspect Rahami was also behind a bomb that exploded in a New Jersey beach town on Saturday, as well as leaving the device found on the sidewalk after the NY blast.
The device found overnight was one of five found near the New Jersey train station. No one was hurt in the New Jersey incident.
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The New Jersey State Police issues a release on Facebook stating Rahami is wanted for questioning in relation to Saturday morning’s Seaside Park explosion as well.
