Rahami was identified Sunday afternoon through a fingerprint, a senior law enforcement official said.
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The president said the FBI is investigating the incident in Minnesota as a “potential act of terrorism”. Mohammad Rahami admitted his son was hanging out with a bad crowd, but described his friends as drinkers and thugs, the officials told NBC News.
The father of Ahmad Rahami, the suspected bomber in a series of explosions in New York City and New Jersey Saturday, says he had “no idea” his son was involved in any alleged terror plan.
Ryan McCann, of Elizabeth, said that he often ate at the restaurant and recently began seeing Rahami working there more.
Federal prosecutors said they were considering charges over the bombings that wounded 29 people. He stayed with his family members, who were refugees, in Quetta. Justice Department guidelines restrict the types of actions agents may take; they can not, for instance, record phone calls without obtaining a higher level of approval or developing more grounds for suspicion.
Harinder Bains recognised Ahmad Khan Rahami from reports after discovering him slumped against the glass of his pub doorway in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
On Monday, authorities said a device found in a backpack near the Elizabeth train station in New Jersey exploded while a bomb squad robot was trying to disarm it.
His father ran a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth since 2002 and Rahami had worked there, customers said.
The case alleged the Rahamis were “threatened and harassed” by a police officer.
Rahami, who could face up to 20 years for each count of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, was taken into custody after he was shot in the leg during the 10:30 a.m. confrontation in Linden, N.J., law enforcement sources said.
Investigators also say they have evidence linking him to a pipe bomb that blew up harmlessly on Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity race to benefit Marines. At least one other officer was injured during the confrontation.
Then an explosion Saturday night in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood injured 29 people. Just a few blocks away, on 27th, another bomb, a pressure cooker bomb, was found in a garbage can; it was dismantled safely without exploding.
Lenny DePaul, a US Marshals Service former commander, told CNN that investigators would be asking Rahami whether he had any help.
The Pakistani-origin wife of NY and New Jersey bombings suspect left the United States just days before the attacks and authorities are now working with Pakistani and UAE officials to get access to her, media reports said today.
Those and other clues prompted officials to release his name and photo on Monday morning.
In the search after the Chelsea explosion, officials found a possible second device on 27th Street, said James O’Neill, the city’s police commissioner.
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Complaints signed by Sgt. Andrew Dellaquila of the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, allege that Rahami fired at each of the officers during a wild shootout on the streets of Linden hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation named him as a suspect.
