On September 17–19, 2016, a series of three constructed bombs exploded, and several unexploded devices were discovered in the New York metropolitan area followed by a subsequent shooting in Linden, New Jersey during a nationwide manhunt to locate the suspected bomber. The bombings and additional police shootout with the perpetrator left 33 people wounded, but no fatalities were reported. Federal and local investigators determined these explosive devices were deliberately set and identified them as part of a terrorist act.
On the morning of September 17, a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey which was intended to detonate during a 5K charity race at the height of crowded venues. Later that day, a homemade pressure cooker bomb went off in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City causing extensive injuries and property damage to adjacent buildings. A second pressure cooker bomb was discovered four blocks away. Late on September 18, multiple bombs were discovered at the train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. One of these bombs detonated early the following morning in the attempts for authorities to disarm it, blowing apart and destroying the local county police bomb disposal robot.
On September 19, 2016, the sole suspect—Ahmad Khan Rahimi, of Elizabeth—was identified and captured, following a shootout with police in neighboring Linden, New Jersey, which left two officers injured from gunfire. Rahimi was not part of a terrorist group, but his actions were believed to have been influenced by the extremist Islamic ideology espoused by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. In 2017, Rahimi was convicted in U.S. federal court of eight federal crimes arising from the attack. On February 13, 2018, Rahimi was sentenced to a mandatory term of life without parole.
Events
Seaside Park bombing
In the morning of September 17, 2016, in Ocean County, New Jersey, the Seaside Semper Five, a 5K run event, was expected to draw as many as 3,000 people, with many of them being veterans of the United States Armed Forces. The race was delayed after a suspicious backpack was noticed in the vicinity of the starting point.
At about 9:30 a.m., shortly before the race was supposed to start, a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can on Ocean Avenue in Seaside Park. Three "rudimentary" pipe bombs, all reportedly timed to go off during the race, were later found, with only one of the three having exploded. Fragments of the device were dispersed into the nearby street and caused a sudden, loud noise which shook buildings and homes nearby. No one was physically hurt by this bombing, however.
The race was canceled after the explosion, and the beach and boardwalk in Seaside Park were evacuated. Police officials and federal agents soon went door-to-door, asking residents about information regarding the bombs or any suspicious activity they may have seen, heard, or witnessed.
Manhattan bombing
In the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, on the same day as the Seaside Park bombing, a pressure cooker bomb filled with shrapnel, in the form of small bearings or metal BBs, exploded in a crowded area on West 23rd Street, between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue at 8:31 p.m. The explosion occurred in front of 133 West 23rd Street in the vicinity of a construction site, at which materials were in place for exterior renovations of the Visions at Selis Manor facility, an apartment building for the blind, at 135 West 23rd Street. Other nearby buildings included the Townhouse Inn of Chelsea, and many restaurants. The Chelsea neighborhood is primarily residential, and has an active nightlife scene.
Witnesses said that the explosion "seemed to have started inside a sidewalk dumpster" in the vicinity of Sixth Avenue, and photographs of a "twisted dumpster" in the middle of West 23rd Street went viral on Twitter. A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity stated that the explosion "appeared to have come from a construction toolbox" in front of a building, and photographs of the area reportedly showed a twisted, crumpled black metal box.
Effects
The explosion "was powerful enough to vault a heavy steel dumpster more than 120 feet through the air ... Windows shattered 400 feet from where the explosion went off, and pieces of the bomb were recovered 650 feet away." The explosion caused damage to a nearby five-story brownstone, and debris was strewn in front of the St. Vincent de Paul Church. The moment of the blast was captured on closed-circuit television footage from three cameras.
Thirty-one people were injured, 24 of whom were taken to four hospitals. Most injuries were scrapes and bruises caused by flying debris and glass. One victim sustained penetrating trauma to the abdomen and was rushed from the scene in serious condition. Nine of the injured were taken to Bellevue Hospital, including the seriously injured person. Lenox Health Greenwich Village treated another nine victims. By the following morning, all of the injured had been released.
The explosion disrupted travel in Manhattan extensively. A significant zone (14th Street to 34th Street between Fifth Avenue and Eighth Avenue) was closed to car travel overnight. By 7:00 a.m. the following morning, all roads in the neighborhood were reopened except for West 23rd Street. New York City Subway service to stations along West 23rd Street was disrupted while the investigation was ongoing.
Discovery of second device
Following the explosion, officers began a block-by-block search for additional unexploded bombs. Several hours later, police received a call from a resident of West 27th Street who had seen a suspicious-looking package near her home. The device was under a mailbox at West 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, four blocks away from the site of the original blast. Two state troopers arrived and discovered the pressure cooker bomb concealed in a plastic bag and connected with dark wiring to a mobile phone. The bomb was filled with small bearings or metal BBs. The pressure cooker bomb was described as similar to those used in the Boston Marathon bombing. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) reported its find of a "possible secondary device" at 11:00 p.m.
The bomb was removed by an NYPD bomb squad robot. An officer used the robot to place the bomb in a containment chamber, and the device was driven away at around 2:25 a.m. on September 18. Investigators obtained fingerprints and a mobile phone from the device. The bomb was driven to the NYPD's Rodman's Neck firing range in the Bronx, where it was destroyed via a controlled explosion. The devices were to be sent to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for further inspection.
Discovery of bombs in Elizabeth
At around 8:00 p.m. on September 18, two men took a backpack they found atop a municipal garbage can at the Elizabeth train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. One of the men, Lee Parker, was homeless and was looking for a backpack so he could go to a job search. His friend Ivan White had found the backpack above the garbage can. They were about 300 feet (91 m) from a busy pub's front entrance and about 500 feet (150 m) from a train trestle when they took the backpack. White and Parker looked into the backpack, discovered that the item contained wires and a pipe, and called 9-1-1 at around 8:45 p.m. The men, who were not held as suspects, were hailed as heroes in Elizabeth; a GoFundMe campaign in their name raised over $16,000 in donations.
The Elizabeth Police Department was the first authority to respond to the men's 9-1-1 call. The investigation was soon turned over to the New Jersey Transit Police Department and the FBI, two county robots (Union and Essex) confirmed the devices were pipe bombs. One of these bombs was detonated at around 12:40 a.m. as the robots sought to disarm the devices. One robot was "damaged" by the blast. Authorities were working to disable the other devices. Following the bomb's accidental explosion, the station was evacuated. The surrounding area was put on lockdown, and service was suspended between the Newark Airport and Elizabeth stations for the day. New Jersey-bound trains from New York were held at Penn Station.
Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said that it was unclear whether the train station was a specific target, or whether the bombs were dumped by someone looking to quickly get rid of them. The Elizabeth device was "similar in appearance" to the Seaside Park device. Police later theorized that the bomber, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, had thrown away the bombs in Elizabeth in an effort to hide the evidence because these bombs lacked detonators.
Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Homeland Security, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) responded to the scene of the Chelsea bombing and were involved in the investigation, in addition to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and the NYPD. Initially, the Seaside Park and Manhattan bombings were investigated as separate incidents, but over a period of two days, the investigation yielded similarities between the two incidents, leading the investigators to determine that they were connected, and therefore that it was to be investigated as one overall composite terrorist act or endeavor, committed by the same person or party.
Within hours after the attack, officials determined that the explosion was intentional, and ruled out the possibility of a natural gas explosion. Investigators did not immediately find evidence of a terrorism link, initially leaving open the possibility of arson or vandalism at the time. A link to terrorism was discovered in the following days.
Both of the Manhattan bombs—the one that exploded and the second that was disabled—were of the same design, using pressure cookers filled with bearings or metal BBs that were rigged with flip phones and Christmas lights that set off a small charge of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), which served as a detonator for a larger charge of a secondary explosive similar to Tannerite.
The FBI examined fingerprints from the undetonated West 27th Street pressure cooker bomb and its attached mobile phone. DNA evidence was also recovered. On September 19, the FBI traced the prints, as well as some pictures on the mobile phone, to Ahmad Khan Rahimi (see below).
Three different designs had been used amongst the four explosive devices, with the Department of Homeland Security finding that the bomb-maker followed guidelines featured in Inspire, an online magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Investigators also said they believed the bomb-maker had cased the Chelsea neighborhood before the bombing there, and that he may have had an accomplice as he would have had to otherwise cover a lot of ground between the bombing sites in a relatively short amount of time. They were talking to witnesses who claimed to have seen Rahimi in the Chelsea area before the explosion. Several bomb ingredients were purchased by Rahimi on eBay between June 20 and August 10.
Search for suspects
Investigators discovered surveillance video that showed a suspect, later identified as Rahimi, planting a bomb on West 23rd Street in Manhattan then walking to West 27th Street dragging a duffel bag. The subject left the bag at West 27th Street. Later, two individuals took the pressure cooker bomb out of the bag and left the scene. Authorities determined that the two men who had taken the bomb out of the bag were, most likely, scavengers who had only wanted the duffel bag and did not know what they had been handling; in the process, they might have deactivated the bomb in the bag. The NYPD and FBI wished to talk with these men, who were considered possible witnesses but were not suspected in helping plant the bomb. Investigators later believed the men were possible Egyptian tourists who have since returned to their home country. U.S. investigators notified Egyptian authorities that they wanted to question the men. It was later confirmed that the pair were security officers for an airline in the Middle East who, despite their profession, did not register that the device was a bomb and focused only on the chance to take the luggage for themselves – which they soon threw in the garbage at their hotel, rather than contact authorities, when they saw news reports about the hunt for Rahami.
Late on September 18, the day after the Manhattan explosion, the FBI announced that five men, who were later found to be relatives of Rahimi, had been detained in connection with the investigation. The men were detained at about 8:45 p.m. at a traffic stop, which was being conducted by the FBI and NYPD on the Belt Parkway near the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge.
Motive
An official speaking to The New York Times on condition of anonymity said, "We don't understand the target or the significance of it. It's by a pile of dumpsters on a random sidewalk." At a news conference the day following the Manhattan bombing, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that placing a bomb in a crowded city street was intrinsically a terrorist act, but that "there is no evidence of an international terrorism connection with this incident", while noting that the investigation was still in its early stages. An explosives expert, speaking anonymously, said the materials used in the bomb indicated that the bomb-builder had some knowledge of how to assemble the explosive device.
A note found on the pressure cooker bomb left on West 27th Street referred to Anwar al-Awlaki (the Muslim cleric who became a senior member of al-Qaeda and was then killed by a U.S. drone strike), the Boston Marathon bombing, and the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.