FBI says it looked into New York bombing suspect 2 years ago

Prosecutors in Union County, New Jersey have charged Rahami with five counts of attempted first-degree murder and two second-degree weapons counts.

The 13-page indictment laid four charges against him, including the use of weapons of mass destruction, bombing a place of public use and destruction of property by means of fire or explosives.

Criminal complaints in Manhattan and New Jersey federal courts provided chilling descriptions of the motivations that authorities said drove the Afghan-born USA citizen to set off explosives, including a bomb that injured more than 31 people when it blew up in a busy Manhattan street. He is accused of planting a pipe bomb at a New Jersey charity run that exploded but did not injure anyone and planting two bombs in New York City.

“Defendant has been charged with police attempted murder and is now under protective services after possible terrorist related activities in NYC”, Mena wrote in the petition filed in New Jersey Superior Court.

Assistant Director William F. Sweeney, who heads the FBI’s NY office, alluded on Monday at a news conference to a “domestic incident” in which he said the “allegations were recanted”.

Peter Donald, a spokesman for the New York Police Department (NYPD) said that the investigations indicate that Rahami, a United States citizen of Afghan origin, was involved in the attacks.

A federal counterterrorism official told PEOPLE that Rahami, 28, was shot three times: Once in the arm, once in the abdomen and once in the leg.

Another refers in glowing terms to Osama Bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Muslim cleric killed in a 2011 drone strike, and Nidal Hasan, a former Army officer who killed 13 people at a Texas Army base in 2009.

They said the injury toll from the Manhattan bombing had risen from 29 to at least 31, and included a British national.

In one section of the book, which was pierced by a bullethole and covered in blood, Rahami wrote of “killing the kuffar”, or unbeliever, according to the official, who agreed to speak about the investigation only on the condition of anonymity. A cell phone connected to the pressure cooker also provided clues, the official said.

Investigators were also probing Rahami’s history of travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and looking for evidence that he may have picked up radical views or trained in bomb-making.

A few minutes later, two men pass by the luggage and appear to admire it, police said.

“But they checked, nearly two months, and they say, ‘He’s OK, he’s clear, he’s not terrorist.’ Now they say he’s a terrorist”, the father said.

According to the Associated Press, electronic toll records show he had driven from Manhattan to New Jersey and back.

It comes as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed it dropped an investigation into Rahami in 2014, after the man’s father reported concerns about him being involved with militants. Rahami faces 20 years for each count.

The FBI has said Rahami apparently was not on its radar at the time of the bombing. A grand jury declined to indict him, despite a warning from the arresting officer that Rahami was probably “a danger to himself or others”.

The New York Times reports that Mohammad Rahami, who owns a restaurant in Elizabeth, N.J.