FBI: Two men in NYC bomb video ID’d
Though not suspects, their role in terror case remains mystery
The FBI identified two men seen on surveillance video this month who removed an unexploded pressure cooker bomb from a piece of luggage on a Manhattan street
Neither is considered a suspect in a bombing campaign that targeted locations in New York and New Jersey, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the two men, co-workers who were visiting New York, left the country shortly after the pressure cooker was located, a few blocks from where a similar device exploded, injuring 31 people.
Federal investigators were traveling to interview the men, who were not publicly identified.
Last week, the FBI issued an alert for the men, indicating that they were wanted for questioning as witnesses.
Investigators want to determine whether other fingerprints found on the device, which do not match primary suspect Ahmad Rahami, belong to the men, eliminating the possibility of other suspects.
The official said the men did not make themselves known to authorities. Rather, investigators tracked them on other pieces of surveillance video to a Manhattan hotel, where they were positively identified from photographs and registration records.
It was not immediately clear whether the men still had the luggage they took after unloading the explosive device.
Rahami remained hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds. He has been intubated and is not well enough to be questioned, the official said.
The 28-year-old suspect, who was captured after a shootout with New Jersey police, faces local attempted murder charges linked to the confrontation with police and federal charges related to the Chelsea neighborhood bombing and devices left at three other locations.
Among the evidence allegedly linking Rahami to the devices are multiple sets of fingerprints found on the unexploded device planted near the Chelsea bombing location, according to federal court records.