Ahmad Khan Rahami, a suspect in the bombings in New York City and a shore town in New Jersey, immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan and lives in New Jersey, where his father owns a fried chicken restaurant.
Rahami was wounded during a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey, Monday morning after he was found sleeping in the doorway of a bar, according to authorities. Two police officers were also wounded, but are expected to survive.
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Rahami was charged with five counts of the attempted murder of a law-enforcment official Monday evening.
"We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror," New York City Bill de Blasio said.
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Rahami, 28, is a U.S. citizen whose family opened First American Fried Chicken in 2002 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The restaurant was searched by authorities Monday morning. The family came to the United States in 1995 as asylum seekers.
Rahami lives with his family above the restaurant, according to The Associated Press.
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"He's a very friendly guy, that's what's so scary," Ryan McCann of Elizabeth told the AP.
His father, Mohammed, said little to an NBC News reporter outside their home Monday, telling him only "I'm not sure what's going on" and "It's very hard right now to talk."
Rahami, who was born on Jan. 23, 1988, in Afghanistan, was arrested in connection with the bombings Saturday and Sunday in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and Seaside Park, New Jersey. Five pipe bombs were found in Elizabeth, one of which exploded as authorities investigated.
A law enforcement source told NBC that a fingerprint on an unexploded device linked the bombings to Rahami; cellphone information also helped.
He was not on either a U.S. terrorist watch list nor on one maintained by the New York Police Department, senior officials told NBC News.
A senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News on Monday that Rahami made several trips to Pakistan, visited Afghanistan in 2013 and is licensed to carry a firearm.
Mohammed and two relatives claimed in a lawsuit filed in federal court five years ago that they were harassed by city officials over the restaurant's hours of operation. Neighbors had complained that the restaurant was a late-night nuisance.
They accused the city of targeting them because they were Muslim, according to the the civil rights complaint.
The restaurant had an exemption to stay open past 10 p.m., but police repeatedly tried to close it early, according to the lawsuit. During one confrontation with police, one of Ahmad Rahami's older brothers was arrested after a fight with an officer, and later fled to Afghanistan, The New York Times reported.
One man, James Dean McDermott, told the family, "Muslims make too much trouble in this country," according to the complaint.
McDermott, a freelance television cameraman, denied the accusation, telling NBC News, "it never happened." He said his dispute with the Rahamis was over the restaurant's hours and not their religion.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage told The AP that Rahami's father and two brothers sued after the city passed an ordinance requiring it to close early.
The owner of a neighboring business described the family as "very secluded" and said the children usually worked behind the counter.
Rahami's father, Mohammad, told NBC News in a brief interview Monday that he had no idea his son was plotting an attack.
Rahami was a criminal justice major at Middlesex Community College from 2010 to 2012 but did not graduate, a college spokesman said. The school said there was nothing concerning in his file.
He was involved in a domestic incident but the allegations were recanted, FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney Jr. said in a news briefing on Monday. He did not describe the incident further.
For more coverage of the New Jersey and New York bombings, click here.
Photo Credit: New Jersey State Police
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