New York bombings suspect Ahmad Rahami on FBI radar back in 2014

World Today

New York bombings suspect Ahmad Rahami on FBI radar back in 2014

More information is coming out about the American man charged in connection with a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey that injured dozens of people.

CCTV America’s Jessica Stone reports.

Two years ago, Ahmad Kahn Rahami’s father, Mohammad, said he called the FBI to report his son was a terrorist-an accusation the father would later recant. On Tuesday, Mohammad told reporters he didn’t know what his son was planning.

The bombing in New York is just one of the crime scenes linked to Rahami. Law enforcement officials said they have evidence tying him to all four.

County prosecutors charged Ahmad Rahami with five counts of attempted murder. He could also face federal terrorism charges for the bombings that injured nearly 30 people.

Now, the investigation is also moving overseas. Rahami traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and may have been radicalized there.

He married a Pakistani woman in 2011. Law enforcement officials said she left the U.S. to return a few days before the bombings, and has been detained in the UAE. U.S. investigators are trying to get permission to speak with her.

Rahami may also have drawn inspiration from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Pressure cookers bombs were used there and the U.S. media are reporting Rahami was found with handwritten notes praising the bombers, the 2009 Fort Hood shooter and the American-born cleric and al-Qaeda recruiter-the late Anwar al-Awlaki.

Rahami provided plenty of clues for investigators. They said they lifted his DNA and fingerprints from the unexploded pressure cooker bomb. Surveillance cameras recorded at two of the crime scenes in New York.

Authorities here in the U.S. are still trying to determine whether Rahami acted alone.