Ahmad Khan Rahimi indicted in NY., N.J. bombing case
NEW YORK -- An indictment has been returned charging a New Jersey man with setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York.
The eight-count indictment announced Wednesday charges 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahimi in the Sept. 17 attacks. The attacks included the detonation of a bomb in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood that injured 30 people.
“It was an extremely loud noise, everything was shaking, the windows were shaking, it was crazy,” Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at Vanity Nightclub at 21st Street and 6th Avenue, said in September after the blast shook Chelsea. “It was extremely loud, almost like thunder, but louder.”
A pipe bomb was also detonated along a Marine Corps Charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey. It went off shortly before thousands of runners were scheduled to take part in the 5K race, authorities said.
The device consisted of three small pipes that were tethered together and possibly wired, an official with law enforcement told CBS News. All pipes apparently had explosives, but only one detonated.
No injuries were reported in that blast, Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, said in September.
Rahimi, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen, was arrested two days later in Linden, New Jersey. In a bloodied journal that investigators recovered, he had made references to Osama bin Laden, as well as to American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlakiand former Army officerNidal Hasan, who went on a shooting rampage in Ford Hood, Texas, according to a federal complaint.
Rahimi remained in New Jersey recovering from gunshot wounds until last week, when he made an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court.
His lawyer, David Patton, said then that Rahimi will plead not guilty when he is indicted. Patton didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.