The man wanted in connection with the bombings that gave both New York and New Jersey a panicked blood filled weekend has been arrested following a shootout with the police this morning. Ahmad Khan Rahami is now in custody after police had issued numerous wanted posters and raided an apartment that provided the link between the bombings in the two states.
Ahmad Rahami is a naturalized 28-year-old native of Afghanistan who has been living with his family in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Following the bombings in New York and New Jersey the man had been placed on a terror watch list which would have prevented him from leaving the country. Local and federal law enforcement officials have said that the shootout between the terror suspect and the police occurred at approximately 11 a.m. Monday morning in Linden, New Jersey. During the shootout between the police and Rahami at least one police officer was shot in the chest but was thankfully not seriously wounded as he had been wearing a bulletproof vest.
https://twitter.com/BuffingActions/status/777889874611404801
According to NBC New York , Ahmad Rahami was also wounded during the shootout which led to his arrest and had to be taken to the hospital afterwards. The extent of the bombing suspect’s his injuries has not been made clear nor have there been any additional information released regarding how the police located the man. It has been said though that a suspicious package had been found close to where Rahami was arrested and the police are currently investigating its contents.
In addition to the bombings in New York and New Jersey over the weekend the police also discovered several unexploded devices which led them to suspect that there was a terror cell at work in the two states. On Saturday night a bombing in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, which left 29 persons injured, was the first time that Ahmad Khan Rahami’s identity was released to the public after police identified him as being wanted in connection to that devastation. Fortunately, those people have all been released from the hospital and there were no fatalities.
Soon after the Chelsea bombing the police found another explosive device just four blocks away, a pressure cooker with a cellphone attachment with protruding wires, and were able to remove it to a firing range and prevent its detonation. A senior law enforcement official told the media that it was a fingerprint that they lifted from that unexploded device which led to Rahami being identified as a suspect.
***WANTED FOR QUESTIONING**** RETWEET! https://t.co/B3IgarqY2D pic.twitter.com/QUjCFdtVc2
— NJSP – State Police (@NJSP) September 19, 2016
CNN reported that surveillance footage of a man rolling a duffel bag to the scene of the Chelsea bombing was believed to have captured Ahmad Rahami in the act. The same man was also believed to have been on camera at a location police later recovered another explosive device.
His address in Elizabeth, N.J., an apartment above a restaurant his father runs called First American Fried Chicken, was where police raided and ended up finding a pipe bomb in a nearby garbage can on Monday morning. The reason why New Jersey State Police also sought his arrest became clearer as Ahmad Rahami’s connection to the bombing in Seaside, New Jersey became known following this discovery. The Saturday bombing in New Jersey involved the explosion of a garbage can close to the starting line of a Marine Corps charity run.
Authorities said the fact that the race started late is what prevented anyone from actually getting hurt as the device had been timed to go off as participants went by. It was then cancelled. During the course of the investigation it was also learned that just a few years ago Ahmad Rahimi had actually accused the FBI of persecuting him and his family simply because they were Muslims.
The bombings are all occurring as the city of New York is set to host the United Nations General Assembly this week, an event which will see the presence of numerous world leaders.
[Featured Image by FBI/AP Images]
