Thread: Police capture immigrant sought in New York-area bombings

Police capture immigrant sought in New York-area bombings

September 19, 2016

LINDEN, N.J. (AP) — An Afghan immigrant wanted for questioning in the bombings that rocked a New York City neighborhood and a New Jersey shore town was captured Monday after being wounded in a gun battle with police that erupted when he was discovered sleeping in a bar doorway, authorities said.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, appeared conscious, his upper right arm bandaged and bloodied, as he was loaded into an ambulance in Linden. Authorities said he underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the leg.

Two officers were wounded in the shootout but were not believed to be seriously hurt, authorities said.

The arrest just hours after police issued a bulletin and photo of Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan who lived with Muslim family in an apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over a fried-chicken restaurant owned by his father.

"We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the arrest, which came less than 36 hours after a shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bomb similar to those used in the Boston Marathon bombing injured 29 people in New York's Chelsea section, none seriously.

A law enforcement official said investigators regard Rahami as the "main guy" in the two explosions but plan to look into whether any others had a role.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Rahami was not believed to be on federal terror watch lists at the time of the blasts.

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. A police officer went to investigate and recognized the man as Rahami, police and the mayor said.

Rahami pulled a gun and shot the officer — who was wearing a bulletproof vest — in the torso, and more officers joined in a running gun battle along the street and brought Rahami down, police Capt. James Sarnicki said.

Police did not disclose how they zeroed in on Rahami as a person of interest in the bombings but were known to be poring over surveillance video and examining bomb fragments and components for evidence.

At the same time, five people who were pulled over in a vehicle Sunday night were being questioned by the FBI, officials said.

The shootout came after a weekend of fear and dread in New York and New Jersey.

In addition to the blast in Chelsea on Saturday night, an unexploded pressure cooker bomb was found blocks away, and a pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town before a charity race. No one was injured there. On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station.

Also Saturday, a man who authorities say referred to Allah wounded nine people in a stabbing rampage at a Minnesota mall before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. But authorities have not drawn any connection between the bloodshed there and the bombings.

Citing the FBI, New Jersey State Police said Monday that the bombs in Chelsea and the New Jersey shore town Seaside Park were connected.

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."

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."

Rahami lived with his family on a busy street a few miles from the Newark airport. Early Monday, FBI agents swarmed the apartment.

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said Rahami's father, Mohammad, and two of Rahami's brothers sued the city in 2011 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.

The Rahamis charged in the lawsuit that they were targeted by neighbors because they are Muslims. The lawsuit was terminated in 2012 after Mohammad Ruhami pleaded guilty to blocking police from enforcing the restrictions on the restaurant.

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, that's what's so scary.

It's hard when it's home," McCann said.

On Sunday night, FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped "a vehicle of interest" in the investigation of the Manhattan explosion, according to FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.

She wouldn't provide further details, but a government official and a law enforcement official who were briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that five people in the car were being questioned at an FBI building in Manhattan.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the investigation.

On Sunday, a federal law enforcement official said the Chelsea bomb contained a residue of Tannerite, an explosive often used for target practice that can be picked up in many sporting goods stores.

Cellphones were discovered at the site of both the New York and New Jersey bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who wasn't authorized to comment on the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The pipe bomb that exploded Saturday in Seaside Park went off before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. The race was canceled.

One of the five devices found at the Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot tried to disarm it. No one was hurt.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/authoriti...060032685.html

New York bombing suspect's family clashed with New Jersey city over restaurant


By David Ingram and Joseph Ax
September 19, 2016



Law enforcement officers search an address during an investigation into Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was wanted for questioning in an explosion in New York, which authorities believe is linked to the explosive devices found in New Jersey, in Elizabeth, U.S., September 19, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
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By David Ingram and Joseph Ax

NEW YORK/ELIZABETH, N.J. (Reuters) - Long before the FBI made Ahmad Rahami notorious as a suspect in this weekend's bombings around New York, his family was well known in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for frequent skirmishes with neighbors over its fried chicken restaurant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to question Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, in the bombings that wounded 29 people in New York City on Saturday, as well as other devices that exploded in New Jersey without causing injury.

Rahami was taken into custody in Linden, New Jersey, about 20 miles (32 km) outside New York, after an exchange of gunfire with police officers on Monday.

Rahami was not listed on U.S. counterterrorism databases, three U.S. officials told Reuters. But he was well known to Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage for the frequent complaints about noise at the family's restaurant, on a commercial strip of a racially diverse, working-class neighborhood.

"The suspect was not on the radar of local law enforcement, but the fried chicken place that ... the family owned, we had some code enforcement problems and noise complaints," Bollwage told reporters.

His father, Mohammed Rahami, registered the business as Khan Fried Chicken in 2006, but four years later changed the name to First American Fried Chicken, citing "popularity," according to state records.

The family lived above the store, which is wedged between a beauty salon and a shop advertising money transfers and computer help. On Monday authorities cordoned off an area around the building and were removing boxes. Officers were on the restaurant's roof, going in and out of the residence, and one officer leaned out of a window, taking pictures.

The restaurant's employees were serious and businesslike, rarely interacting with customers more than they had to, said Josh Sanchez, 24, and Jessica Casanova, 23, who called themselves frequent customers.

By 2008, Elizabeth police were battling with First American Fried Chicken over the restaurant's 24-hour schedule. A city ordinance barred take-out stores from staying open past 10 p.m.

The restaurant was cited, and although the family appealed the decision, a New Jersey appeals court ruled against the family in 2014, according to records.

A lawyer who represented the Rahami family in the dispute could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The family filed a lawsuit around 2010, claiming they were being discriminated against, Bollwage said, adding that the city's actions involving the restaurant were in no way related to the family's religion or ethnic origin.

Rahami traveled to Afghanistan several years ago and afterward grew a beard and began wearing religious clothing, Flee Jones, a childhood friend, told Reuters.

The reason for the trip and its full impact on Rahami was not immediately known, but Jones said Rahami became more serious and quiet. Jones said he learned about the travel from one of Rahami's brothers and last saw Rahami about two years ago.

"He was way more religious," Jones said, adding, "I never knew him as the kind of person who would do anything like this."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/york-bomb...182517173.html

he was discovered sleeping in a bar doorway, authorities said.
GET THESE PEOPLES OUT OF OUR USA NOW-
PREVENT FURTHER INTRUSIONS - THIS A CON GAME BY UN.

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