N.Y. subway riders shrug off attack
Terrorist mocked Trump before setting off bomb
NEW YORK — New York subway riders shrugged off the city’s latest attack Tuesday, a day after police say a would-be suicide attacker set off a pipe bomb.
The underground passageway at the Times Square station where the homemade device went off Monday was crowded with commuters a day later. The only sign of Monday’s explosion was an increased police presence, including a badge-wearing German shepherd named Omar.
Riders said they had no qualms about returning to the station where authorities say Akayed Ullah set off the bomb.
“I just feel like New York City is a resilient city and you just go on with your life and do the best you can,” said Jennifer Farinas, whose commute involves a bus from Secaucus, N.J., to the Port Authority Bus Terminal near the targeted station and then the subway to her marketing job. “Anything can happen, any time, anywhere; you just have to be aware.”
The Bangladeshi immigrant arrested in a botched suicide bombing in the New York subway mocked President Donald Trump on Facebook on his way to carry out the attack, writing “Trump you failed to protect your nation,” authorities said Tuesday as they brought federal charges against him.
Akayed Ullah, 27, was accused of detonating a pipe bomb strapped to his body in an underground passageway between Times Square and the bustling Port Authority Bus Terminal. The device did not fully detonate, and Ullah was the only one seriously hurt in the Monday morning attack.
At the hospital where he was taken with burns on his hands and torso, he told officers, “I did it for the Islamic State,” according to the criminal complaint.
At a news conference, Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said Ullah picked a rush hour on a weekday to maximize casualties in his quest “to kill, to maim and to destroy.”
According to the court papers, Ullah started to become radicalized in 2014 and began researching how to build a bomb after watching ISIS propaganda materials online.
Ullah lived with his father, mother and brother in a Brooklyn neighborhood with a large Bangladeshi community, residents said.