NYC bomb suspect’s family questioned

Wife, other family were being questioned Tuesday as federal prosecutors ready their case.

NEW YORK — 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 — the city’s busiest subway station — and the bustling Port Authority Bus Terminal. The device did not fully detonate, and Ullah was the only one seriously hurt in the attack Monday morning.

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. Also, a search of his Brooklyn apartment turned up a passport in his name, scrawled with the words “O AMERICA, DIE IN YOUR RAGE,” authorities said. His court-appointed lawyer did not return a message seeking comment.

At a news conference, Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said Ullah picked rush hour on a weekday to maximize casualties in his quest “to kill, to maim and to destroy.” Ullah, “with a hatefilled heart and an evil purpose,” carried out the attack after researching how to build a bomb a year ago and planned his mission for several weeks, Kim said.

The bomb was assembled in the past week using fragments of a metal pipe, a battery and a Christmas tree light bulb, along with metal screws as shrapnel, authorities said. They said it was strapped to his body with wires and zip ties.

The suspect “had apparently hoped to die in his own misguided rage, taking as many innocent people as he could with him, but through incredible good fortune, his bomb did not seriously injure anyone other than himself,” Kim said.

Ullah was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, use of a weapon of mass destruction and three bomb-related counts. He could get up to life in prison.

According to the court papers, Ullah started to become radicalized in 2014 and began researching how to build a bomb after watching Islamic State propaganda materials online. In reaction to the bombing, Trump demanded a tightening of immigration rules.

Ullah entered the country in 2011 on a visa available to certain relatives of U.S. citizens. Less than two months ago, an Uzbek immigrant who came to the U.S. through a visa lottery was accused of killing eight people in New York by mowing them down with a truck along a bike path.

“We're going to end both of them — the lottery system and chain migration. We’re going to end them fast,” Trump said at the White House. Ullah lived with his father, mother and brother in a Brooklyn neighborhood with a large Bangladeshi community, residents said.

Overseas, Bangladesh officers questioned Ullah’s wife and other relatives, officials said. Relatives and police said Ullah last visited Bangladesh in September to see his wife and newborn son.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the botched attack showed in the “starkest terms” that the failures of the U.S. immigration system are a national security isue. Sessions called anew on Congress to strengthen immigration laws.