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The police have identified a person of interest in connection with a powerful explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on Saturday night (a second device was found unexploded nearby) and the discovery on Sunday of pipe bombs in New Jersey. The suspect was identified as Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28.
The police on Monday arrested a person of interest in connection with a powerful explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on Saturday night and the discovery of other explosive devices in the region.
Here’s what we don’t know:
The suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was taken into custody following reports of an “active shooter” situation in Linden, N.J.
• A motive behind the explosion in Manhattan that injured 29 people.
Here’s what else we know:
• Why the site of the explosion was selected.
On Monday, the New York Police Department released a photo of Mr. Rahami, and said he was being sought in connection with the bombing that injured 29 people.
Here’s what we know:
The police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, said the blast occurred in front of 131 West 23rd Street.
Officials said they believed the explosion had been caused by a homemade bomb that was placed under a Dumpster.
The authorities said a suspicious device was found on West 27th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue almost three hours after the explosion. Mr. O'Neill, speaking at Police Headquarters on Sunday, said the device was found by two state troopers performing a sweep of the area.
A photograph of the device that was shared on social media showed a silver piece of cookware with wires and a cellphone attached. The police confirmed that the photo was authentic.
The Police Department bomb squad removed the device around 2:25 a.m. and transported it to the department’s firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx, where they rendered it safe. The police said the device would be examined further at the F.B.I.’s lab in Quantico, Va.
Pipe bombs were found Sunday night near the train station in Elizabeth, N.J. The mayor, J. Christian Bollwage, confirmed that a suspicious package containing “wires and a pipe” had been found by two men in the city, and said that the F.B.I. and the New Jersey State Police had been called in to investigate after a drone found that the item could be a bomb.
Twenty-nine people were injured, many by shrapnel from the explosion. One person was seriously hurt, officials said. By Sunday morning, all of those who had been admitted to local hospitals had been released.
After saying on Sunday that there was no evidence of an international terrorist connection to the explosion, the governor said Monday on CNN, “I would not be surprised if we did have a foreign connection to the act.” And on the CBS show “This Morning,” he again said, “There may very well be a foreign link.”
On Sunday, the governor said no groups had claimed responsibility. Still, Mr. Cuomo cautioned that it was early in the investigation and said that whether it was an act of terrorism depended on how the word was defined: “A bomb exploding in New York is obviously an act of terrorism,” he said.
Mr. de Blasio called the explosion “an intentional act.”
On Monday, the New York Police Department released a photo of Mr. Rahami, and said he was being sought in connection with the bombing in Chelsea and the discovery of bombing implements in New Jersey.
He was described as a United States citizen of Afghan descent. His last known address was in Elizabeth, N.J., and early on Monday, the authorities raided a home there as part of the investigation.
He was described as a United States citizen of Afghan descent. His last known address was in Elizabeth, N.J., and early on Monday, the authorities raided a home there as part of the investigation.
Mr. de Blasio said he could be armed and dangerous.
Mr. Rahami was arrested after a shootout with the authorities. He appeared to be wounded.
Late Sunday night, two law enforcement officials said that investigators had stopped a car on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Five people were taken to an F.B.I. office in Manhattan for questioning in the bombing investigation.
• Twenty-nine people were injured by a blast around 8:30 Saturday night in Chelsea.
One of the officials said that all or most of them may have been from the same family. No one has been charged, officials said.
One person was seriously hurt, officials said. By Sunday morning, all of those who had been admitted to hospitals had been released.
Both devices — the one that exploded on West 23rd Street and the other that was found a few blocks away — were filled with shrapnel and made with pressure cookers, flip phones and Christmas lights that set off an explosive compound, law enforcement officials said.
• An explosion near a charity race in New Jersey earlier on Saturday appeared not to have injured anyone.
A law enforcement official, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said that evidence suggests the blasts in Manhattan and Seaside Park, N.J., are connected.
• On Sunday, pipe bombs were discovered in New Jersey, and the F.B.I. accidentally detonated one of the pipe bombs. But no injuries were reported.
But the police said they did not believe the blast in Chelsea was related to a mysterious explosion in Central Park in July, when a teenager from Virginia lost part of his leg, said Robert K. Boyce, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives.
After saying on Sunday that there was no evidence of an international terrorist connection to the explosion, the New York governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, said Monday on CNN, “I would not be surprised if we did have a foreign connection to the act.” And on the CBS show “This Morning,” he said, “There may very well be a foreign link.”
An improvised device exploded in a garbage can on Saturday in Seaside Park, near the course of a charity race to benefit members of the United States Marine Corps. The device went off at about 9:30 a.m., around the time the race was scheduled to have started. There were no injuries. Officials said that the race had been delayed for an unrelated reason and that there was no one on the course near the site of the explosion at the time.
On Sunday, the governor said no groups had claimed responsibility. Still, Mr. Cuomo cautioned that it was early in the investigation and said that whether it was an act of terrorism depended on how the word was defined: “A bomb exploding in New York is obviously an act of terrorism,” he said.
Officials said that the device there consisted of three pipe bombs tied together, with a flip phone also used as a timing mechanism.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the explosion “an intentional act.”
Avenue of the Americas between West 14th and West 27th streets was still shut down on Sunday night, according to the police. West 23rd Street was closed between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. The subway station at 23rd Street and Avenue of the Americas remained closed early Sunday night.
No one else has been named as a suspect, but five people were taken to an F.B.I. office in Manhattan for questioning in the bombing investigation late Sunday night.
They were stopped in a car on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge late Sunday night, according to two law enforcement officials. All or most of them may have been from the same family, but none of them have been charged, officials said.
Four. The first exploded in a garbage receptacle near a charity race on the Jersey Shore about 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
The second exploded in front of 131 West 23rd Street in Chelsea about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
State troopers found a third device nearby, on West 27th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
About 8:45 p.m. Sunday, two men walking from a train station in Elizabeth, N.J., found a backpack containing five explosives on top of a garbage can. The location is about a half-mile from where Mr. Rahami lives.
The map here shows the two Manhattan locations.
Officials have not released details about the type of explosive that went off Saturday morning in New Jersey.
Both of the devices in Manhattan — the one that exploded on West 23rd Street and the other found a few blocks away — were filled with shrapnel and built from pressure cookers, flip phones and Christmas lights that set off an explosive compound, law enforcement officials said.
The police have confirmed that the photo below, shared on social media, is of the second device found in Manhattan.
The fourth device was actually five bombs contained in a backpack. Some of them were pipe bombs.
