NYC-area bombing suspect charged with attempted murder
NEW YORK (KGO) -- After a shootout and a frantic manhunt, the prime suspect in a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey was found arrested and charged with five counts of attempted murder. It took just under four hours for authorities to grab Ahmad Khan Rahami after police publicly identified him on Monday.
VIDEO: Chelsea explosion captured on surveillance cameras
His alleged crimespree started Saturday with an explosion in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Later, another explosion rocked Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and left 29 people injured. Then, a few blocks away on 27th Street, an unexploded pressure cooker bomb was found. And on Sunday, five devices were discovered at a New Jersey train station in Elizabeth. The suspect was captured Monday morning in Linden, New Jersey.
The 28-year-old is already facing attempted murder charges for a shootout he had with police in New Jersey on Monday morning.
U.S. attorneys and local authorities in New Jersey and New York City are also weighing charges for the bombs they say he built and set off.
Video shows Rahami laying on a stretcher, marking the end of a two-day manhunt.
Minutes earlier, a bystander shot cellphone video of a shootout at a bar in Linden, New Jersey bar. On the video you can hear him say, "There's a man shooting a gun, shots fired, shots fired."
RELATED: Suspect in NYC-area bombing that injured dozens arrested
Rahami was spotted by the bar owner. His friend, mail carrier Robert Varady, described the scene.
"He saw a man asleep in the little entrance way, in the vestibule, and I believe that's when the police, I'm not sure exactly what happened then, but that's when the police showed up at that point," he said.
Linden Police Captain James Sarnicki adds, "The officer then said, 'Show me your hands.' The person went to the side of his body and pulled out a handgun and fired a round at the officer, striking him in the abdomen."
That officer, thankfully, was wearing a bulletproof vest. Another officer was also grazed by gunfire and not seriously injured. But Rahami was hit multiple times.
Overnight, law enforcement agencies shared surveillance video of Rahami walking away from the Manhattan bombing scene just before the explosion.
PHOTOS: Explosion in Chelsea
A suspicious item was spotted just a couple blocks away.
"I walk right by here and there's a pot on the street with wires sticking out of it," said Chelsea resident Jane Schreibman. "And think that it's probably a kid's science experiment."
Investigators say it's similar to the bomb that exploded.
A cellphone attached to the undetonated pressure cooker was traced to Rahami's father in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His family owns a fried chicken shop there.
Bay Area Congressman Eric Swalwell, D-Pleasant, who's on the House Intelligence Committee, says the bombs are a familiar design.
"The pressure cooker that was used is and was designed in a way and manner prescribed by al Qaeda's Inspire magazine," he said.
But federal investigators say they have found no links to foreign terrorist groups.
Click here for full coverage on the explosions in NYC.
