Device Near New Jersey Train Station Explodes While FBI Investigates

Christian Bollwage, the mayor of Elizabeth, New Jersey, said that the device exploded shortly after 12:30am local time on Monday. One of the suspicious devices found in a trash can in Elizabeth exploded early Monday as a bomb squad was attempting to disarm it with a robot, officials said.

A pair of scavengers unknowingly handled a pressure cooker bomb when they removed the device from a suitcase in Chelsea before leaving it exposed on the sidewalk while walking off with the rolling luggage, sources and police officials said.

Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was taken into custody after firing at police officer in Linden, N.J., about 20 miles outside New York, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said.

The FBI bulletin (PDF) on Rahami stated he “is a 28-year-old United States citizen of Afghan descent born on January 23, 1988, in Afghanistan”.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man wanted for questioning in connection with the bombings in NY and New Jersey, is now in custody after a shootout with police, sources said.

There were no reports of injuries.

Then later that day, at around 8:30 p.m., blast on West 23rd Street in Manhattan shook apartment buildings and shattered glass. Two officers sustained injuries in connection with the gun fight. The New York Times reported that an official said that the individuals may have been from the same family and that they may have been on their way to the airport. On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station.

Two men called police and reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of a package after finding it around 8:30 pm on Sunday, the mayor said. As the robot was doing so, one of the devices detonated.

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NY police were looking for 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami in connection with the Chelsea bombing over the weekend. He was captured hours later in Linden, New Jersey, after a shootout with police. “Rahami has brown hair, brown eyes, and brown facial hair”. His last known address was in Elizabeth.

Law enforcement sources said five people in the vehicle were being questioned at an Federal Bureau of Investigation building in the city. Bollwage went on to add, “I’m extremely concerned for the residents of the community, but more importantly extremely concerned for everyone in the state and country where someone can just go and drop a backpack into a garbage can that has multiple explosives in it with no timers and then you have to wonder how many people could have been hurt”.

He was expected to comment Monday afternoon after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in NY.