Police shoot man wanted in bombing investigation; family members once alleged anti-Muslim bias
Updated: Police have shot and wounded a 28-year-old New Jersey man they sought to question in connection with the bombing in Manhattan on Saturday that injured 29 people and a bombing in Seaside Park, New Jersey, the same day.
Police shot Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth, New Jersey, in a shootout on Monday, report CNN, NBC New York, the Washington Post and the New York Times. The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) had earlier reports on the search for Rahami.
Rahami was being taken to a hospital after being wounded in the shootout in Linden, New Jersey, according to the reports. One police officer was shot in the hand and another in his bullet-proof vest, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told reporters.
Rahami is a U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan.
Millions of New York residents were asked via a cellphone alert to call 911 if they saw Rahami, according to the New York Times and USA Today. The cellphone alerts are most often used to notify New Yorkers about severe weather.
Police had sought Rahami as a result of surveillance videos, the Times says.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had said on Good Morning America that Rahami could be armed and dangerous. “We need to get this guy right away,” de Blasio said.
Police conducted a series of raids in Elizabeth on Monday, and also found five bombs near a train station in the town after receiving a tip late Sunday about a suspicious package. One of the bombs detonated as a robot tried to disarm it.
Officials were looking for links between the bombs in Elizabeth and New York, as well as a Saturday bombing in Seaside Park, New Jersey, along a race route, and a stabbing that wounded nine people on Sunday at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, according to the Post.
Members of the Rahami family live and work at a New Jersey address that was searched, according to the Post. A restaurant on the ground floor of the address, First American Fried Chicken, is owned by several family members, according to the article.
Family members who operated the restaurant filed a lawsuit in 2011 claiming they had been harassed by Elizabeth police and wrongly cited for keeping their business open past 10 p.m. The family members alleged a neighborhood resident complained about them because of his animus towards Muslims.
