An Afghan immigrant wanted for questioning in the bombings that rocked a New York City neighbourhood and a New Jersey shore town was captured on Monday after being wounded in a gun battle with police that erupted when he was discovered sleeping in a bar doorway, authorities said. Ahmad Khan Rahami (28) appeared conscious as he was loaded into an ambulance in Linden.
The arrest came just hours after police issued a bulletin and photo of Rahami, a naturalised U.S. citizen from Afghanistan who lived with family in an apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey, over a fried-chicken restaurant owned by his father.
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said that late on Monday morning, the owner of a bar reported someone asleep in his doorway. A police officer went to investigate and recognised the man as Rahami, police and the Mayor said. The shoot-out came after a weekend of fear and dread in New York and New Jersey, with authorities saying the bombings were looking increasingly like an act of terrorism with a foreign connection.
Bombings connectedIn addition to the blast that injured 29 people in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on Saturday, an unexploded pressure cooker bomb was found blocks away, and a pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town before a charity race.
On Sunday, five explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station. Citing the FBI, New Jersey State Police said Monday that the bombings in Chelsea and New Jersey were connected. — AP
