The man the FBI sought in connection with this weekend's bombings in New Jersey and New York has been taken into custody after a shootout with the police in Linden, New Jersey, officials said Monday.
The suspect, 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, was born in Afghanistan and is a naturalized US citizen, according to the FBI. He was not on any US terror watchlist, officials said.
Rahami was shot in the standoff with the police, and a witness told The New York Times a police officer might have been shot as well.
He is believed to have connections to three incidents this past weekend, according to law-enforcement agencies:
- A bombing along the route of a New Jersey charity race Saturday morning;
- A bombing Saturday night in New York City;
- And additional devices found in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Sunday night.
The mayor of Linden told ABC 7 in New York that an officer found Rahami when responding to a report of a person sleeping in the hallway of a bar.
ABC News reported that Rahami was taken to a hospital after he was apprehended:
Rahami's last known address was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where the FBI turned its investigation Monday morning after a backpack full of bombs was secured by authorities near an Elizabeth train station late Sunday night.
Five bombs were found in the backpack; one of them exploded while Union County's bomb squad tried to defuse it with a robot.
Two restaurant patrons first saw the backpack on top of a trash can outside Hector's Place restaurant, thought it might contain valuables, and tried to carry it through the parking lot, according to The New York Times. When the bag got too heavy, they dropped it. They then discovered that it contained wires and a pipe, and they called the police.
Rahami is also believed to have connections to the New York City bombing on Saturday night. Authorities believe he appeared in surveillance video that evening from 23rd Street and 27th Street, where one bomb exploded and another was found, according to NBC News.
The bomb that exploded on 23rd Street injured 29 people, all of whom have been released from hospitals. FBI agents stopped "a vehicle of interest in the investigation" Sunday evening.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York had warned that Rahami could be "armed and dangerous," and he instructed anyone who spotted him to call 911 immediately. Area residents received an emergency alert about Rahami on Monday morning on their phones.
So far, the police have not identified any additional suspects. But law-enforcement sources say two others were seen on surveillance tape handling the bomb in New York on Saturday, and the police questioned five people who were in the vehicle pulled over Sunday night in connection to the investigation.
Authorities appear to be changing their initial assessment that the bombs found in New York and New Jersey weren't connected and that the incidents didn't appear to be related to international terrorism.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York told CNN on Monday morning that he "would not be surprised if we did have a foreign connection to the act."
Here's the FBI's poster on Rahami:
And here are the additional photos from the New Jersey State Police:
