Rahami, who lived with his family above the First American Fried Chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is also suspected of planting a bomb that exploded on the New Jersey shore on Saturday, a device found near the NY blast, and up to six more devices found near the Elizabeth train station on Sunday night.
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Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was wounded in a shootout yesterday with police in Linden, New Jersey, just four hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation released his mugshot and sent text message alerts to millions of people.
Footage shortly after the incident showed Ahmad Khan Rahami being stretchered into an ambulance.
The bombings in New York City and New Jersey happened the same day that a man stabbed and injured nine people at a Minnesota mall before an off-duty police officer fatally shot him. A foot chase ensued, during which Rahami shot at a police vehicle, causing a bullet to graze another office in the face. Responding police shot Rahami and took him into custody Monday morning.
Two officers were taken to local hospitals and treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Citing unnamed law enforcement sources, CNN said the trips included a year-long stay in Pakistan ending in March 2014.
State Superior Court Judge Regina Caulfield set bail at $5.2 million, according to Park.
NY police believe that Rahami is the man shown in security camera videos on Manhattan’s West 23rd St., where on Saturday a bomb exploded, and on West 27th St. where shortly thereafter another unexploded bomb was found.
The FBI special agent in charge of the case, William Sweeney, said at the same press conference that his agency has no evidence about any terrorist cell operating in metropolitan New York City.
Initially, a garbage can explosion at a Marine Corps charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, Saturday morning seemed to be an isolated incident. However, while doing so, at 12:30 a.m. Monday, a device exploded.
The blast came as five men were detained and questioned over a bomb attack in NY on Saturday night, which left 29 injured.
There were contradictory accounts of how Rahami came to the attention of law enforcement, with the father telling reporters outside his restaurant Tuesday that he himself contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation expressing concern after the dispute. Just blocks away, another bomb is found – and it’s similar to the first.
The FBI ran through more checks, but never interviewed Ahmad Rahami, according to officials.
About 10 minutes later, surveillance video showed the same man with the same duffel bag on West 27th Street, near the site of the second bomb.
Investigators want to talk to the two men but appear to have moved away from the idea that the pair had been involved. NY police Commissioner James O’Neill described the men as “strolling” along the street and seeming “incredulous” when they took the bag.
That’s the last known address of the younger Rahami, according to local media. On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station.
The defendants, including police officers and city officials, denied the allegations. No one was injured there.
Authorities recovered a handgun at the scene, said the prosecutor.
Rahami first came to the United States in 1995 as a child, after his father arrived seeking asylum, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2011. While there, he married a Pakistani woman in July 2011.
Meanwhile, authorities are looking to question Ahmad Rahami’s wife, who was out of the country at the time of the bombings. When he returned to the U.S., he was once again taken into secondary questioning but told officials he was visiting his wife, as well as his uncles and aunts.
First American Fried Chicken, was as much a late-night “chill spot” for neighbourhood youths as it was a fixture of noise complaints.
The family alleged discrimination and harassment in a lawsuit filed against the city and its police department in 2011, arguing that officials conspired against them by subjecting them to citations for allegedly violating a city ordinance on hours of operation.
In this fiscal year so far, New Jersey has resettled 289 Syrian refugees, 174 of which were placed in Elizabeth.
Stepped-up security across the city is common as world leaders arrive for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, which is underway. Spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will comment publicly later Monday.
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Clinton also said she hopes to utilize experts in the technology hub in California’s Silicon Valley to help come up with ways to monitor internet conversations among plotters “to counter terrorism attacks before they occur”. “That’s the kind of strength that makes me so proud to be an American”.
