The video also shows the two men who found the suitcase and made a decision to take it with them, while leaving the contents behind that night. The FBI released a photo of the men, whom police described as witnesses, CNN reported.
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The bureau’s NY office released a photo of the two men Wednesday, saying it was taken between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday on 27th between Sixth and Seventh avenues. They took out the device, but left it at the scene.
After his capture, authorities found a journal that seems to reveal more about why Ahmad tried to bomb New York City.
A law enforcement official tells NPR that Rahami’s father, Mohammad R. Rahami, called New Jersey police over the dispute involving his son but later retracted his complaint.
The 28-year-old Rahami also faces federal terrorism charges in Manhattan federal court, where a legal technicality prevents the appointment of a federal defender there, according to court records.
He is now receiving treatment for his wounds at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, where he could formally face his charges if he cannot travel to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, his lawyer said. Investigators are attempting to identify two men who were spotted on a surveillance video purportedly taking a suitcase that held one of the bombs on New York’s 27th Street.
But there is “no indication that there is a cell operating in the area or in the city”, Sweeney said, adding that “the investigation is ongoing”.
Rahami’s father, Mohammad Rahami, told The New York Times that he warned FBI investigators about his son ahead of the bombings. “We have no information that would link them to this at all”, Boyce said at a briefing.
Rahami is recovering in New Jersey from wounds he sustained in a shootout with police Monday morning, when he was taken into custody.
The FBI says it looked into Rahami after he was accused of stabbing his brother in 2014, but the bureau found nothing then tying him to terrorism.
“Inshallah (God willing), the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets”, Rahami wrote in a journal that he was carrying when arrested, according to prosecutors.
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The new charges against Rahami come from federal prosecutors – four counts filed in NY and six counts in New Jersey – include use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing a public place and destruction of property. The messages include praise of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011, and “Brother Osama Bin Laden”, the former head of al-Qaida who was killed by USA forces in Pakistan in 2011.
