Rahami was wounded in a shootout with police and is in a hospital in New Jersey. The discovery may be significant as the investigation continues into whether there’s any connection between two New York City devices and the pipe bomb at the Jersey shore.
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Investigators believe the attackers may have been organised by a terrorist cell.
Two US officials said Rahami had a small notebook on him when he was apprehended, which one of the officials said contained “ideological” musings. They take different twists and turns.
In court papers, a public defender sought a court appearance for Rahami, an Afghan-born USA citizen, so he can hear the federal terrorism charges against him.
The law enforcement officials said at least one of Rahami’s relatives was in the auto, which appeared headed toward Kennedy Airport in NY after coming from New Jersey.
Anthony Stanhope, who lives near the site of the Chelsea blast, said at first he thought the explosion was thunder and lightning.
This undated photo provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Ahmad Khan Rahami.
De Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo both said the explosion has no links so far to global terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State, though it’s still early in the investigation.
No worldwide militant group has claimed responsibility for the blast.
A pipe bomb exploded Saturday in Seaside Park, New Jersey before a charity race. No one was injured there.
Federal authorities now believe that the explosion in Chelsea, where another explosive device was found nearby, was linked to as many as six explosive devices found just outside NY in Elizabeth, Homeland Security officials told Reuters. The official, who was not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the device was found inside a plastic bag on West 27th Street.
Investigators are examining a suspicious device found in a trash can near a New Jersey train station, and service on the busy Northeast Corridor line has been suspended.
“The crudity of the devices in all three cases certainly doesn’t point to any group that’s been developing (improvised explosive devices) for years”, said a USA official involved in the investigation who requested anonymity to discuss the inquiry.
Authorities in NY are looking for a man in connection with a bombing in Chelsea that left 29 people injured. His face was clearly captured by surveillance cameras near the spot of the blast.
She would not provide further details, but a government official and a law enforcement official who were briefed on the investigation said that five people in the auto were being questioned at an FBI building in lower Manhattan. Authorities relentlessly searched for the suspect in the terrifying September 17 NYC explosion, and they’ve finally released the name of who they believe to be the culprit.
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said the break in the case came late Monday morning, when the owner of a bar reported someone asleep in his doorway.
“The investigation is now focusing on one individual”, he said.
In one section, the complaint says, Rahami wrote: “Death to your oppression”.
The FBI issued a wanted poster for Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, in connection with the bomb placed in a Dumpster outside 135 West 23rd Street that injured 29 people. More charges were expected to be brought against Rahami in federal court. Still, some of the restaurant’s customers said Rahami was more likely to talk about his interest in cars.
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Stanekzai said it was possible Rahami might have been influenced by “huge networks” of radicalization in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, or online.
