United States President Barack Obama on Monday asked his countrymen “not to succumb to fear” after the bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey and a mass stabbing incident in Minnesota over the weekend.
Even as we have to be vigilant and aggressive both in preventing senseless acts of violence but also making sure that we find those who carry out such acts and bring them to justice, we all have a role to play as citizens in making sure that we don’t succumb to that fear.
One Man, Many Crimes: Restraining Order, Unpaid Dues, Suspected Bomber & More
Long before Ahmad Rahami became notorious as the man allegedly behind this weekend’s bombings in and around New York, his family was well known in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for its frequent skirmishes with neighbours over its fried chicken restaurant.
Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized US citizen who was born in Afghanistan, had a brushes with the law as well, records showed.
Described as a “class clown” by high school classmate Hakeen Ezzouhairy, Rahami studied criminal justice before dropping out of a community college. More recently, he became active in the Muslim community of his racially diverse hometown.
Rahami was not listed on US counterterrorism databases, reported three US officials. But his family was well known to Elizabeth, reported Mayor Chris Bollwage for the frequent complaints, dating back to at least 2008, about noise at their restaurant ‘First American Fried Chicken’ on a commercial strip of Elizabeth.
Neighbours also complained that restaurant customers urinated outside on a driveway and parked in another driveway.
The family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2011, claiming discrimination against them by the city, police and neighbours. Ahmad Rahami’s father and two brothers were plaintiffs, but he was not. The lawsuit was put on hold in 2012 and never reopened.
Rahami had other run-ins with the law. He was arrested in 2014 on weapons and assault charges for allegedly stabbing someone, the New York Times reported. The newspaper said he spent more than three months in jail but was never indicted.
In 2008 and 2012, he spent time in jail for failing to pay traffic tickets and for allegations of violating a restraining order, respectively.
Community College Dropout, Former Aspiring Uber Driver
Rahami majored in criminal justice at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, according to the school. He attended from 2010 to 2012 but did not graduate, NBC reported.
At one point he started an application to become an Uber driver but never completed it, the cab aggregator confirmed.
The suspect is reported to have traveled overseas but it was not immediately clear how many times, what places he visited and the purpose of his travel. Rahami made several trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years, CNN and other media reported.
Flee Jones, a childhood friend, told Reuters that Rahami traveled to Afghanistan several years ago and afterward grew a beard and began wearing religious clothing.
Rahami was taken into custody on Monday after being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with police officers in Linden, just outside Elizabeth, a working-class city some 32km southwest of New York City with a large immigrant population.
Authorities suspect him of setting off the bomb that wounded 29 people in Manhattan on Saturday, as well as leaving a bag with five other devices in New Jersey on Sunday, one of which exploded without causing injury.
Mohammad Rahami, the father of the suspect, told MSNBC that he was not aware of his son planning any bombings and he did not know what to believe.
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Source: AFP and Reuters
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