NEW YORK SHOOT-OUT
Radicalised Muslim being hunted over terror bombings is wounded and captured after gun battle in street with police
THE radicalised Muslim suspected of carrying out the latest US terror outrage was captured yesterday after a street shootout with police.
Ahmad Khan Rahami opened fire after officers discovered him sleeping in the doorway of a closed bar.
Recognising the 28-year-old from his wanted poster, one policeman told the suspect to put his hands up and was hit – but was saved by his bulletproof vest.
Another officer was injured as enforcements closed in from all directions and joined the firefight. Rahami then slowly walked off down the street, firing ‘indiscriminately’ at passing cars before he was shot several times.
Still conscious with blood pouring from a wound on his shoulder, he was taken by ambulance to hospital for surgery and was in a stable condition last night.
The dramatic arrest came a little more than 48 hours after the launch of a frantic manhunt for Rahami, who was wanted for planting a string of bombs in New York and New Jersey. Only hours earlier, police had issued a mobile phone alert to millions of residents warning them to be on the lookout for the ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect.
Witnesses say the bearded Rahami, made little attempt to escape when police discovered him yesterday morning in Linden, New Jersey. Witnesses described ‘a lot of gunfire’ as the Afghan-born naturalised US citizen exchanged shots with police. Investigators say Rahami is responsible for a pressure cooker bomb that injured 29 people in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on Saturday night.
They also believe he planted a similar device that failed to explode a few streets away, as well as a pipe bomb detonated at a military charity run in New Jersey hours earlier.
Two other pipe bombs planted in the same rubbish bin did not explode. Police believe the second Manhattan bomb may have been inadvertently disabled by two thieves who took it out of a duffle bag but left it in the street.
Alarming evidence of the scale of the attack came on Sunday night when a group of homeless people discovered a backpack – again placed in a rubbish bin – containing five more pipe bombs near the railway station in Rahami’s home town of Elizabeth, New Jersey. One exploded after an FBI robot cut a
‘Saved by bullet proof vest’
wire while attempting to disarm it.
Unlike the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, who used similar homemade devices, Rahami had not been on a US watch list despite making multiple trips back and forth to Afghanistan. Associates insist that he returned from a trip a few years ago showing signs of having been radicalised.
He came to the attention of US police some years ago after he allegedly pulled a knife on his sister but the accusation was withdrawn. His family have run a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth since 2002, but locals complained it was staying open all night and creating a noise.
One of Rahami’s brothers is said to have been arrested after fighting with an officer when police arrived late one night to close the restaurant. He fled to Afghanistan before he could be prosecuted. Neighbours said the Rahami family were strangely insular, never hiring anyone else to work in the diner.
‘They seemed secretive, a little mysterious,’ said neighbour Jessica Casanova.
Police last night said they are not looking for other suspects, although officials said evidence may show a link to a foreign terror group such as Islamic State or al Qaeda.
Security – including armed police, armoured vehicles, sniffer dogs and troops from the National Guard – was beefed up as world leaders descend on New York for this week’s United Nations general assembly. Experts said the bombs highlighted how untrained terrorists can access information on constructing devices online.
All the explosive devices found so far used Christmas lights as igniters and were connected to olderstyle flip phones so they could be detonated remotely.
Security experts said the pressure cooker bombs, packed with explosives and ball bearings were more sophisticated than the devices used in Boston.
Crucially, the bomb that went off had been placed in a large metal rubbish bin to ensure that the force of the explosion largely travelled upwards. There was speculation last night that Rahami had intended to die as he made little attempt to cover his tracks.
He was caught on video footage and reportedly left a fingerprint on the device that did not explode. One phone used to detonate a bomb was owned by his father.