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Ahmad Rahami Charged over NY & NJ Bombings

HeadlineSep 21, 2016

In updates to this weekend’s bombings in New York and New Jersey, suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami has been charged in a Manhattan federal court with bombing, property destruction and the use of weapons of mass destruction. He was not charged with any terrorism-related crimes. Rahami is the main suspect in the bombings. Police say they identified Rahami from surveillance video which showed him at both sites in Manhattan where bombs were planted—on 23rd Street, where a bomb did explode, injuring 29 people, and four blocks away, on 27th Street, where a bomb did not explode. Authorities also say his fingerprints were found on the device planted at 27th Street. He was arrested after a shootout in Linden, New Jersey, on Monday, in which he and officers were both injured, and he also faces multiple counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. The charges filed Tuesday in the Manhattan courtroom suggest prosecutors have not been able to tie Rahami to any non-state terrorist organizations. This comes as information continues to emerge about Rahami. His father says Rahami was arrested in 2014 for allegedly stabbing a family member. He was not indicted on the charges. His father says at the time he called the FBI and referred to his son as a terrorist, prompting the FBI to open an investigation, which found no evidence to support his father’s statement.

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