The Rahami family came to the U.S. as asylum seekers in the 1990s when Ahmad was about seven years old

FBI officials said Rahami was not on any terror watch list but he had traveled multiple times to Afghanistan

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed on Monday that Rahami had sued his local police for discrimination

On Sunday, five more pipe bombs were found at the Elizabeth train station and were disarmed by police

No one was injured in that incident

Just hours before the Chelsea bombing, a pipe bomb was

Fingerprints on a second unexploded bomb found blocks away led police to Rahami

The pressure cooker bomb set off Saturday in New York City's Chelsea


Hours after being arrested in a shootout with police, the man wanted in connection to a series of bombings in the New York City-area this weekend has been charged.

Ahmad Khan Rahami faces five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and two gun charges, authorities said Monday afternoon. Bail has been set at $5.2 million and he remains in hospital.

Federal charges in the bombings have yet to be filed.

The 28-year-old was arrested around 11am on Monday, after a bar owner in Linden, New Jersey found him passed out in the waterproofed lobby entrance to his business and called 911.

When police arrived on the scene, Rahami brandished a weapon and started shooting at the cops - injuring four. Officers shot Rahami in the right shoulder and he was taken from the scene in an ambulance, handcuffed to a stretcher.

Police released Rahami's picture Monday morning, saying he was wanted for questioning in connection to the Saturday bombings in New York City and Seaside Park, New Jersey, as well as the foiled bombing of the Elizabeth, New Jersey train station on Sunday.

Law enforcement say it was fingerprints left behind on an unexploded pressure cooker bomb in Manhattan that led them to Rahami. Twenty-nine people were injured when another bomb placed a few blocks away was detonated Saturday night.

Rahami wasn't on any terror watch lists but a childhood friend said that he started to change after going on a 'life-changing' trip to Afghanistan two years ago.

Now that Rahami is in custody, investigators are now looking into whether he acted alone or was perhaps working with or for a larger terror network. All indications currently suggest that the series of attacks was a lone wolf attack, authorities said at an afternoon press conference.

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Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was taken into custody on Monday after a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey. He is seen above being taken from the scene on a stretcher

Rahami is wanted for questioning in connection to two bombings and an attempted bombing in New York City and New Jersey over the weekend. He is pictured slumped over in Linden, New Jersey after his arrest on Monday

Authorities say Rahami was shot during the shootout on Monday, and is currently undergoing surgery for his wounds. he was conscious as he was taken from the scene

A local bar owner called police after finding Rahami sleeping in the vestibule of his business late Monday morning

When police responded to the scene, Rahami reportedly brandished a weapon and started shooting. Four cops were injured in the shootout but none of them are in critical condition

According to the bandages on his body, it appears that Rahami was shot in the led and the arm on Monday

Rahami was born in Afghanistan but spent most of his life in the U.S. and has since become an American citizen. A friend told reporters that he changed two years ago, after taking a trip to his native Afghanistan

Witnesses told DailyMail.com that Rahami was found sleeping in the vestibule of a bar called Merdie's on Elizabeth Avenue. Bar owner Harry Barnes asked Rahami to move because he didn't want him to get injured by some broken glass on the ground. Barnes spoke to Rahami in Spanish, and Rahami answered in English. When the two locked eyes, Barnes recognized the man's face and ran across the street to another business he owns to call 911, neighbor Sandy Percoski said.

When police showed up, Rahami pulled a gun and started shooting. One witness told the New York Times that the officers were shooting at Rahami as he was running away. The witness said Rahami was shot more than once and was 'still twitching' when he was arrested.

Authorities say two Linden officers, Angel Padilla and Peter Hammer, were wounded in the confrontation. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Hammer, who suffered 'significant bleeding' according to CNN, left hospital at around noon Tuesday.

Pictures from the scene show a man appearing to be Rahami laying on the ground, his shirt pulled up exposing his bulky physique, with his hands retrained behind his back.

The mayor of Elizabeth, New Jersey said that one of the officers injured in the shooting had been shot in the vest while another cop suffered an injury to his head caused by a piece of glass. None of the four injuries were considered critical.

Rahami was also shot, and was taken from the scene in an ambulance, a gunshot wound noticeable on his right upper arm. Authorities later revealed that he had also been shot in the leg. As of Monday afternoon, Rahami was undergoing surgery for his injuries.

Rahami is seen above in CCTV footage just before the second bombing Saturday evening in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City

Investigators say they were able to identify Rahami (pictured above in three different pictures) from a fingerprint on a second pressure cooker bomb planted in Chelsea that didn't explode

Above, the bar where Rahami was found Monday morning. The owner found the suspect sleeping in the vestibule, which is the weatherproofing anteroom seen covering the front door above

FBI detectives were searching through Rahami's Elizabeth, New Jersey apartment Monday morning. Rahami also worked at his family's fried chicken shop on the first floor of the building

In an afternoon press conference, FBI Special Agent William F. Sweeney said that Rahami had not been on their radar for terrorism. However, he was accused of domestic abuse 'some time ago' -allegations which were later recanted. He also traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

A childhood friend who spoke with the Boston Herald said that Rahami began to change after a trip to his home country two years ago.

'At one point he left to go to Afghanistan, and two years ago he came back, popped up out of nowhere and he was real religious,' Flee Jones, 27, said. 'And it was shocking. I'm trying to understand what's going on. I've never seen him like this.'

At one point he left to go to Afghanistan, and two years ago he came back, popped up out of nowhere and he was real religious. And it was shocking. I'm trying to understand what's going on. I've never seen him like this. Flee Jones, childhood friend of Ahmad Khan Rahami

Officials at the press conference said the five armed people who had been arrested in Brooklyn on Saturday have since been released from FBI custody. It was reported at the time that the five people in the car headed to JFK airport may have been related to the suspect. It's unclear if that is true. Officials refused to say whether charges could be filed against those five individuals.

Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted at the conference that there's 'every reason to believe this was an act of terror'.

At another press conference, President Obama praised the calm and collected reaction of locals in New Jersey and New York.

'Folks around here, they don't get scared. They go about their business every single day,' President Obama said.

According to the FBI's wanted poster, Rahami is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan. Sources tell CNN that the Rahami family moved to the U.S. as asylum seekers in the 1990s, around the time that Ahmad was seven years old.

But in recent years, Rahami has made 'multiple' visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Authorities told CNN that Rahami had spent a year, between 2013 and 2014, in Pakistan where he traveled to a Taliban stronghold.

When he returned to the United States, he went through routine questioning but was not picked up as a potential terrorist. He was not placed on any terrorist watch list.

He also married a Pakistani woman, CNN's Situation Room reported.

Earlier Monday, FBI agents stormed Rahami's apartment in Elizabeth. The apartment is located above First American Fried Chicken, a restaurant that Rahami's family owns.

Elizabeth was also the site of a foiled bomb plot on Sunday, after police found and deactivated five pipe bombs at the local train station.

Neighbors told DailyMail.com that the family who live in the building had recently changed the way they dressed.

Ahmad and the other men working in the shop had largely worn Western clothing - although his father's wife wore the hijab - until recently, one local, who did not wish to be identified, told Dailymail.com.

'Up until recently they wore regular clothes like us and then they started dressing in their culture's clothes,' they said.

Rahami and his family actually sued the Elizabeth, New Jersey police in 2011, claiming the police force discriminated against them and tried to stop their fried chicken shop from holding late hours. Above, FBI agents search the home and business on Monday

The city of Elizabeth won the lawsuit in 2012. The mayor said the lawsuit 'had nothing to do with his ethnicity or religion' and everything to do with 'noise and people congregated on the streets'

DailyMail.com also revealed that Rahami sued his local police force in 2011 for discrimination. The lawsuit claimed that the local police tried to shut down their fried chicken business early every night. Ahmad his father Mohammad Sr, 53, and his brother Mohammad, brought the lawsuit together and said that local residents also racially abused them and said: 'Muslims don't belong here'.

At a press conference on Monday, the mayor of Elizabeth revealed that the city had won the lawsuit.

Rahami was said to be a 'class clown' in high school. Pictured above in a high school yearbook photo

'It was neighbor complaints, it had nothing to do with his ethnicity or religion,' the mayor said. 'It had to do with noise and people congregating on the streets.'

Despite the legal battle with the local government, Rahami seemed to many to be quite Americanized.

As a boy at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, he was a 'class clown' who messed around with classmates and talked sports, a friend told Buzzfeed News.

'He was in my 9th grade English class,' Hakeem Ezzouhairy, 27, of Maplewood, said. 'Very funny, class clown. Got along with everyone, was a very nice kid.

'Never would I [have] thought years later he would be capable of something like this.'

That was a sentiment shared by Rahami's father, Mohammad Sr, who shook his haid and said 'No' when asked by MSNBC whether he knew of his son's alleged plot.

And when asked whether he believed whether the allegations against his son might be true, the man said: 'I’m not sure what’s going on. I’m not sure what’s happening exactly.

'But I think so. It’s very hard right now to talk, okay?'

TIMELINE OF TERROR: HOW FBI MANHUNT UNFOLDED OVER 48 HOURS In just 48 hours New York and New Jersey have been shaken by a series of bombings and attempted bombings. Authorities are investigating the possibility that it could be the result of a terrorist cell operating in the city. that authorities believe may be the result of a terrorist cell operating in the city but current indications are that the blasts are the work of a lone wolf. Here's what happened and when SATURDAY 1) 9.30am: Pipe bomb detonated at military fun run near Seaside Park, New Jersey The pipe bomb exploded in a waste bin along the proposed route of the third annual Semper Five 5K run. The race had been delayed, so no one was hurt. Two other unexploded devices were found in the same garbage can. They were attached to flip-phone timers. 2) 8.30pm: First 'pressure cooker' bomb explodes on West 23 St in Chelsea, Midtown Manhattan, New York The bomb, which was placed in or near a metal trash dumpster at a building site, injured 29 people, including a boy of eight. One person was seriously injured, but all 29 were released from hospital by Monday morning. 3) 10pm: Unexploded second 'pressure cooker' bomb found on West 27 St in Chelsea A resident found a pressure cooker with a flip-phone timer outside her home and called in police. Two State Troopers located the bomb, which was taken to a police firing range in The Bronx to be defused. It was defused at 8pm Sunday. All evidence is being taken to Quantico for analysis. SUNDAY 4) 8.30pm: Five IEDs are found near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey Two homeless men found a backpack in a wastepaper basket by a railroad bridge near Elizabeth Station. Upon spotting the bombs they ran to a nearby police station. Police then evacuated the area and brought in a robot to defuse the bombs. At 1am the robot cut the wrong wire, causing one bomb to detonate. No one was hurt, and the bombs were relocated. 5) 8.45pm: Five people stopped by FBI agents while driving through Brooklyn towards Verrazano Bridge FBI agents pulled over the group, who were driving an SUV, and detained them for questioning. On Monday NYC FBI assistant director William Sweeney Jr announced in a press conference that all five had been released without charge. He said at the same conference that Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, of New Jersey was the only suspect being considered in this case. Early reports indicated that the vehicle stopped by the FBI contained weapons and bomb-making equipment, but these details were not mentioned by Sweeney. MONDAY 6) 6am: FBI raids home of suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami in Elizabeth, New Jersey FBI agents struck the home of Rahami and his father above 'First American Fried Chicken' restaurant owned by the family at 104 Elmora Avenue. Soon after Rahami was named by the Bureau as a suspect in the case. 7) Noon: Rahami spotted in Linden, NJ, sleeping in a bar doorway Harry Barnes, owner of Merdies bar on Elizabeth Avenue, spotted Rahami sleeping in the doorway of his establishment. He asked the man to move in case he cut himself on broken glass, but when Rahami looked up, Barnes recognized him and ran to call police. Rahami fired on approaching officers, instigating a shoot-out in which he was wounded in the shoulder and arrested. Two officers were also injured. Advertisement

RAHAMI SUED HIS LOCAL POLICE OVER DISCRIMINATION The prime suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings sued his local police force and claimed they were persecuting him for being a Muslim. Ahmad Rahami said in a lawsuit that cops in Elizabeth, New Jersey subjected his and his family to discrimination and 'selective enforcement' based on their religion. The family - who used the name Rahimi in the legal papers - claimed that police tried to shut down their chicken restaurant, called First American, too early each night with 'baseless' tickets and summonses. Ahmad, 28, his father Mohammad Sr, 53, and his brother Mohammad, brought the lawsuit together and said that local residents also racially abused them and said: 'Muslims don't belong here'. The lawsuit was filed in 2011 and reveals that Ahmad has a long history of grievances with city officials, their local police force and people who lived close to them. Court records show that the complaint was dismissed with prejudice in 2012, meaning that it could not be brought again. At a press conference on Monday, the mayor of Elizabeth revealed that citizens complained when the fried chicken restaurant first opened because it was open for 24 hours and people congregated outside of it. The police tried to shut the store down at 10pm daily and that's when the Rahami family field the lawsuit. The city won the right to enforce the 10pm closing time in court, proving that it was a 'quality of life' issue. Advertisement

Diners who ate at the restaurant say Rahami appeared to be taking over responsibility for the business from his father.

Patron Ryan McCann says he has only positive memories of Rahami.

'He's a very friendly guy, that's what's so scary,' McCann told the BBC.

'I come in here about once every week or two, just to get something to eat. He's always in there. They never seemed out of the ordinary, they just Americanized.

'You would've never knew anything. He'd always talk about his cars. He loved Civics, he loved going fast, that's what he did, he'd talk about his cars,' McCann said.

Another diner said that one of Rahami's brother once got into a fight with a police officer who came to shut down the restaurant by 10pm. That brother allegedly fled to Afghanistan before he could be prosecuted for assaulting an officer.

The Rahami family is made up of Mohammad Sr, 53, his wife, two adult sons, Ahmad and Mohammad Qasim, 25, apparently known as Qasim, and two adult daughters, Aziza, and Zobyedh.

Zobyedh is a student at a nearby campus of Rutgers University, studying towards a B.S. in public health.

She is a writer on the university newspaper, the Daily Targum, and had previously worked as an assistant at the Asian American Cultural Center at the university, and had posted anti-Donald Trump material on social media.

Neighbors on the same block as First American Fried Chicken told DailyMail.com that the family largely isolated from the community.

One woman who lives in the street said: 'Mohammad [Ahmad] is a very nice man, always wearing white and he would pray in the back of the shop.

'I would wait at the counter for him to finish and he would come and take the orders.'

She said that during a visit to the shop in the last few weeks, she had seen two new men behind the counter who she had never seen before and that Ahmad Rahami was cooking food in the back of the store.

A young teenage boy who often worked in the store served her.

She said the other men who were behind the counter spoke to Ahmad Rahami in a language the young boy didn't understand.

An immediate neighbor, who refused to be identified, said: 'The last time I saw him was on Friday, in a blue car. He parked in front of my house in the blue car.

'He always parks in front of my house. I saw him in the shop not long ago.

'I see him maybe two times a week in the shop, but I always see him in that blue car.'

Another neighbor said that the father was always in the shop working, and that the other brothers were not seen as frequently.

Of the father, the neighbor said: 'He was clearly very devoted to his religion. He was very quiet and seemed very nice. You would see him praying sometimes.'

Twenty-nine people were injured Saturday night when a pressure-cooker bomb exploded inside a dumpster in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

Surveillance video reportedly shows the same man, believed to be Rahami, dropping off a bomb on that street, as well as another street where an unexploded IED was later found.

After dropping off a duffel bag at the second location, on 27th street, two other men are seen taking a white garbage bag out of the duffel bag and placing it on the street. It's believed that the trash bag contained the second pressure cooker bomb. Authorities are now looking to speak to the other two men in the surveillance video, to see if they may be tied to the attempted attack. According to reports, the two men may have been thieves who made off with the duffel bag and left the trash bag behind.

Late Sunday, two homeless men found a backpack inside a trash can near the Elizabeth, New Jersey train station - about a mile from the Rahami's fried chicken restaurant. The two men took the backpack to a train track underpass and opened the bag, finding five pipe bombs inside. The frightened men then ran to police and reported the bag.

Police worked overnight to disarm the devices, but one of them exploded when a police robot cut a wrong wire. While the blast startled law enforcement, no one was injured in the blast.

In addition to the bombing in Chelsea, and the thwarted attack at the Elizabeth train station, a pipe bomb was also detonated at a military charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey early Saturday morning. No one was injured in that incident.

In an interview on CNN Monday morning, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the bombs have similarities suggesting 'there might have been a common linkage'.

Cuomo had said Sunday that there was no evidence to suggest that the bombing was related to international terrorism, but he appeared to walk that back Monday.

'Today's information suggests it may be foreign related, but we'll see where it goes,' he said.

Cuomo says investigators have no reason to believe that there are further threats, but the public should 'be on constant guard'. Cuomo was at Manhattan's Penn Station to thank state troopers and National Guard members for their work protecting the public during and after the New York City and New Jersey shore town bombings.

Cuomo, touring the site of Saturday's blast that injured 29 people in Chelsea, said the unexploded pressure cooker device appeared 'similar in design' to the bomb that exploded in Chelsea, but he didn't provide details.

On Sunday, a federal law enforcement official said the Chelsea bomb contained a residue of Tannerite, an explosive often used for target practice that can be picked up in many sporting goods stores. The discovery of Tannerite may be important as authorities probe whether the two New York City devices and the pipe bomb at the Jersey shore are connected.

Cellphones were discovered at the site of both bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who wasn't authorized to comment on an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

It was actually fingerprints on the unexploded Chelsea device that led authorities to Rahami.

There was no immediate word on whether the devices in Elizabeth were similar to those in nearby Seaside Park or New York City.

Officials haven't revealed any details about the makeup of the pressure cooker device, except to say it had wires and a cellphone attached to it.

Rahami is currently being held on $5.2 million bail. Police say he is refusing to cooperate with the authorities.

Surveillance footage reportedly shows the same man, believed to be Rahami, dropping the pressure cooker bomb off in Chelsea, and another one a few blocks away that never exploded. Above, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (right) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (second right) survey the scene on Sunday

Above is the second pressure cooker bomb found in Chelsea that never detonated. Investigators were allegedly able to identify Rahami from fingerprints on the device

Two homeless men also found a backpack full of five pipe bombs near the Elizabeth, New Jersey rail station on Sunday. One of the devices accidentally went off as police were trying to disarm it. No one was injured in that incident

The two homeless men were rifling through the backpack they found in a trash can on Sunday when they noticed the pipes and wires and immediately found police. Above, the scene on Monday morning

Earlier Saturday, a pipe bomb went off at a charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey (above). No one was injured in that incident

The FBI stopped an SUV with five armed people inside it on New York’s Verrazano bridge in connection with Saturday’s Manhattan bomb. It was previously reported that the people inside the car were members of Rahami's family. It's unclear whether that is the case, but police say all five have since been released from FBI custody

On Sunday night, police blew up the device, rendering it safe. A forensic examination of the device will be sent to the FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, police said.

Homemade pressure cooker bombs were used in the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013 that killed three people and injured more than 260.

The Chelsea explosion left many rattled in a city that had marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks only a week earlier and that was schedule to hold a United Nations meeting Monday to address the refugee crisis in Syria.

Witnesses described a deafening blast that shattered storefront windows and injured bystanders with shrapnel in the mostly residential neighborhood on the city's west side.

One New Yorker, Anthony Stanhope, was in his apartment when the blast went off. At first he thought it was thunder and lightning.

'Then all of a sudden, car horns went off, and I thought, "Oh, my God, this isn't lightning. This is too loud,"' Stanhope said. 'This is a bomb.'