Former classmate says Ahmad Khan Rahami was "nice and easy-going"
ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Ahmad Khan Rahami lived with his family above their chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He first came to the U.S. from Afghanistan, sources say, as a baby just a couple of months old.
He attended Edison High School in New Jersey, where one classmate contacted by CBS News described him as nice and easy-going. Others said he was quiet and kept to himself.
“No one knew him to be a problem or a menace in school or society or in the community,” said Imam Ali Jaaber, knew Rahami and his family. “If you don’t have that information about someone, it is a terrible shock.”
As a teenager, he and a girlfriend had a child -- a daughter now in elementary school.
After high school, he attended nearby Middlesex County College, where he majored in criminal justice. A spokesman says he was a full-time student from fall 2010 through fall 2012, but never graduated.
Neighbors say he later began working at his family’s restaurant.
In his early 20’s, during his trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan, he got married. In 2014, he made efforts to bring his wife into the U.S.
New Jersey Congressman Albio Sires confirms Rahami sent an email from Pakistan to Sires’ office, wanting to know the status of an entry visa and passport for his wife.
She was later denied the visa, Sires’ office said, because she was found to be 35 weeks pregnant and would have needed Pakistani passports for both herself and the baby to gain entry into the U.S.
Sires told CBS News that Rahami told his office that he had been in Pakistan since April of 2013, and said he did not have any reason to have concerns about Rahami at that time.