NY, New Jersey Bombings Suspect Arrested



NEW YORK —
A man sought by police in connection with bombings in New York and New Jersey on Saturday is in custody following what has been described as a shootout with police.

Law enforcement officials said Ahmad Rahami, 28, was detained in Linden, New Jersey, late Monday morning.

CNN showed video of a man it said was Rahami, conscious and on a stretcher with what appeared to be a bloodied right shoulder, being loaded into an ambulance. Authorities later said he was undergoing surgery for a leg injury.

Two police officers and Rahami sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the shootout, local authorities said.

Police were searching for anyone linked to four explosives-related incidents in the last three days, including a blast Saturday night that injured 29 people in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Rahami is the sole person believed to be involved in the New Jersey and New York explosions.

"There is no other individual we are looking for at this time," he told reporters at a news conference after Rahami was detained.

As local officials have publicly debated for two days how to label the bombings, de Blasio said Monday: "We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror."

Local and federal police announced their search for Rahami early Monday.

Police say Rahami, a U.S. citizen of Afghan descent, was last known to live in Elizabeth, New Jersey, about 6 km from where he was detained in Linden. Local media reports say his family ran a restaurant there on the first floor of their home.

The FBI said Rahami is wanted for questioning in the Chelsea explosion, which happened around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, as well as in another bombing hours earlier in Seaside Park, New Jersey, about 135 kilometers south of New York City. Explosives detonated in a trash bin there just before the start of a 5-kilometer foot race. No one was hurt in that blast.

The FBI and police in New York have also been searching for possible links between the Saturday blast in Chelsea and another explosive device found a few blocks away that did not detonate. The second device, recovered a short time after the first went off, involved a pressure cooker with a cellphone attached to it. Police safely removed it from the area and said Sunday they blew it up in a controlled explosion.

Yet more devices were found late Sunday in a backpack in a trash can at a train station in Elizabeth, located just outside New York. Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said one of the devices exploded as police tried to disarm it with a robot. The incident briefly disrupted train service throughout the region, along one of the country's busiest rail corridors.




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