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Details Emerge About Ahmad Rahami, Suspect in NY & NJ Bombings

HeadlineSep 20, 2016

On Monday, police arrested 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, the main suspect in Saturday’s bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey, after a shootout in Linden, New Jersey. Rahami was injured during the shootout and taken to a hospital for surgery. Authorities say multiple police officers were also injured. He’s now been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, as well as weapons charges. Police say they identified Rahami from surveillance video which showed him at both sites in Manhattan where bombs were planted—on 23rd Street, where a bomb did explode, and four blocks away, on 27th Street, where a bomb did not explode. Police described that device as a pressure cooker bomb connected to a flip phone, packed with shrapnel and wired to detonate. According to law enforcement officials, his fingerprint was found on this pressure cooker bomb, along with a handwritten note that authorities say contained references to other attacks, including the Boston Marathon bombing. Authorities say Rahami may also be linked to a pipe bomb that exploded in a garbage can earlier Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey. New details emerged about Rahami and his family throughout Monday. Rahami was born in Afghanistan and is a naturalized American citizen who was living in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He had traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan several times in recent years, and he lived in Quetta for a time. During his return trips back to the United States, he went through secondary screenings at airports. His family runs the restaurant First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His family filed a lawsuit in 2011 against the city of Elizabeth after it forced the restaurant to stop operating 24 hours a day. In the lawsuit, the family said they’d been discriminated against and harassed by police officers, city representatives and a neighboring business owner, who they alleged said, “Muslims don’t belong here.” Rahami’s family lost the lawsuit. Other details emerged Monday about a domestic abuse charge against Rahami, filed by his sister, who later recanted. New York Congressmember Peter King, who was briefed by the FBI, said Rahami once attempted to stab his sister. On Monday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bombings an “act of terror.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio: “Based on the information we have now, we have every reason to believe this was an act of terror.”

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