Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, Was Wanted For Questioning In Both Incidents
BREAKING NEWS
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A suspect wanted in the bombings that rocked Chelsea and Seaside Park, New Jersey was captured Monday after an intense manhunt that ended in a gun battle with Linden police.
The arrest came just hours after the FBI, NYPD and New Jersey State Police issued bulletins and photos of Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan with an address in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The gunfight erupted after Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said he owner of a bar reported someone asleep in his doorway late Monday morning. A police officer went to investigate and recognized the man as Rahami, police and the mayor said.
“The suspect pulled out a gun and fired at the officer and striking him in the abdomen,” Capt. James Sarnicki with Linden police told CBS2. “The gentlemen got up and started walking down the street in a westerly direction. I’m told that he was randomly discharging his handgun and one of the officers was able to get close enough to him and return fire.”
Sarnicki said Rahami was shot several times. The suspect is said to be alert, but his condition is not known. He has since been taken to the hospital.
The officer who was shot was wearing a protective vest and was not seriously hurt. Another officer may have been hurt in the face and a third was suffering from high blood pressure, Sarnicki said.
Earlier Monday, FBI agents swarmed an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth that’s tied to Rahami.
The activity there came hours after one of five devices found at the nearby Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot attempted to disarm it.
Sarnicki said Rahami was shot several times. The suspect is said to be alert, but his condition is not known. He has since been taken to the hospital.
The officer who was shot was wearing a protective vest and was not seriously hurt. Another officer may have been hurt in the face and a third was suffering from high blood pressure, Sarnicki said.
Earlier Monday, FBI agents swarmed an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth that’s tied to Rahami.
The activity there came hours after one of five devices found at the nearby Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot attempted to disarm it.
The Seaside Park incident happened Saturday morning when a device exploded before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. The race was canceled and no one was injured.
Then on Saturday night, a device exploded on West 23rd and 7th Avenue, injuring 29 people. The unexploded device was found several blocks away on West 27th Street.
New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as investigators gathered information they learned there were “certain commonalities among the bombs,” leading authorities to believe “that there was a common group behind the bombs.”
Cuomo were careful to say there was no evidence of a link to international terrorism. Both said Monday that appears to be changing.
“There may very well turn out to be a link to foreign organizations,” Cuomo said.
“I think that it is premature to use a word like ‘cell,'” de Blasio told 1010 WINS. “This may have been the work of one individual, it may be more than one individual. We need more information.”
On Sunday night, FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped “a vehicle of interest” in the investigation of the Chelsea explosion, according to FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.
Sources told CBS2 that five men inside the vehicle are believed to be associates of Rahami. At least one of the men in that vehicle was Rahami’s relative, CBS2’s Janelle Burrell reported.
“There was a vehicle that came to the attention of the NYPD and it was trailed, it was stopped,” de Blasio said. “Individuals were questioned.”
The FBI stopped the vehicle because they had reason to believe that Rahami was inside, but he was not. Investigators suspect that the five men were driving from Staten Island heading to John F. Kennedy Airport when investigators ordered them to pull over.
The men were taken in for questioning and are still being detained by the FBI. They have not been charged. It’s not clear what, if any, knowledge they had about any of the incidents.
Before Rahami’s capture, Cuomo said investigators have no reason to believe there are further threats, but the public should “be on constant guard.”
Around the time Rahami was taken into custody, President Barack Obama was in New York on a previously scheduled visit for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, and said it was “extremely fortunate” nobody was killed in the bombings.
He called on Americans to show the world “we will never give in to fear.”
“We all have a role to play as citizens to make sure we don’t succumb to that fear. And there’s no better example of that than the people of New York and New Jersey,” the president said. “Folks around here, they don’t get scared.”
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said Rahami’s father, Mohammad Rahami, and two brothers sued the city after it passed an ordinance requiring the First American Fried Chicken restaurant to close early because of complaints from neighbors that it was a late-night nuisance.
Ryan McCann, of Elizabeth, said that he often ate at the restaurant and recently began seeing the younger Rahami working there more.
“He’s always in there. He’s a very friendly guy,” McCann said. “That’s what’s so scary. It’s hard when it’s home.”
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