This undated photo provided by the FBI shows Ahmad Khan Rahami. The New York Police Department said it is looking for Rahami for questioning in the New York City explosion on Saturday
Police released a photo of a 28-year-old Afghan immigrant that they took into custody late last night in connection to explosions in New York City and New Jersey, following a shootout with officers. Senior government officials have revised their stance from Sunday, now saying that the attacks are looking increasingly like an act of terrorism.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan with an address in Elizabeth, New Jersey, should be considered armed and dangerous, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in one of a series of TV appearances just minutes after the photo was released.
In addition to the blast in Chelsea on Saturday, a pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town before a charity 5K race and an unexploded pressure cooker device was found blocks away from the explosion site in Chelsea. On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered at a New Jersey train station.
Authorities are investigating whether the bombings and explosive devices were related.
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.”
“We want to get this guy in for questioning,” de Blasio said on CNN. “We need the facts to be able to piece all this together. […] I think we’re going to know a lot more in the course of the day. Things are moving very quickly.”
Early yesterday, FBI agents swarmed an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth that’s tied to Rahami. The activity came hours after one of five devices found at the nearby Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot attempted to disarm it. No one was injured.
Saturday night’s blast in the bustling Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan injured 29 people, and another unexploded device made out of pressure cooker was found several blocks away. In the immediate aftermath of that bombing, de Blasio and Cuomo were careful to say there was no evidence of a link to international terrorism. Both are now saying that appears to be changing.
“The more we learn with each passing hour is it looks more like terrorism,” de Blasio said in a later interview on NY1 News.
Cuomo, in a separate interview on MSNBC, said: “Today’s information suggests it may be foreign related but we’ll see where it goes. […] My operating premise is anytime, anywhere, seven days a week you could have an incident like this.”
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. The discovery of Tannerite may be important as authorities probe whether the two New York City devices and the pipe bomb at the Jersey shore are connected.
Cellphones were discovered at the site of both 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 an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The bombings in New York City and New Jersey happened the same day that a man stabbed and injured nine people at a Minnesota mall before an off-
duty police officer fatally shot him. The St. Cloud police chief said the man reportedly made at least one reference to Allah and asked a victim if he or she was Muslim before attacking. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility. MDT/AP
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