Tag Archives: New Jersey bombing

NY bombing suspect’s family clashed with New Jersey city over restaurant

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.”

(Reporting by David Ingram in New York and Joseph Ax in Elizabeth, New Jersey; Additional reporting by Julia Harte, Mark Hosenball and Julia Edwards in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Alan Crosby)

New York City bombing suspect captured in New Jersey

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (C) and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (L) tour the site of an explosion that occurred on Saturday night in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, USA,

By Joseph Ax and Mica Rosenberg

ELIZABETH, N.J. (Reuters) – An Afghanistan-born American sought in connection with a series of bombings that wounded 29 people in the New York City area over the weekend was in custody after a gun battle with police on Monday, a New Jersey mayor said.

Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was captured after firing at police officers in Linden, New Jersey, about 20 miles (32 km) outside New York, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said. Two officers were shot, one in the hand and the other in a bullet-proof vest, he said.

“Mr. Rahami also sustained shots and an ambulance has taken him away,” Bollwage said.

Video from WABC television showed a conscious man described as Rahami on a gurney and being loaded into an ambulance.

Investigators believe more people were involved in the New York and New Jersey bombing plots, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

Earlier on Monday, New York Police had released a photo of Rahami, 28, and said they wanted to question him about a Saturday night explosion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and for a blast earlier that day in Seaside Park, New Jersey, authorities said.

In addition to the two incidents, officials are probing a backpack containing bombs found in a New Jersey train station on Sunday, and an unexploded pressure-cooker bomb located blocks away from the Chelsea blast site.

No one was injured in the other blasts.

As reports of Rahami being taken in custody were being released, U.S. President Barack Obama said he saw no connection between the explosions and a separate weekend incident where a man stabbed nine people at a mall in central Minnesota before being shot dead.

He said authorities are investigating the stabbing as a potential act of terrorism.

The man in the Minnesota incident was described a “soldier of the Islamic State,” the militant group’s news agency said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in Elizabeth, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone and Alan Crosby)