ELIZABETH, N.J. — A man who described himself as a childhood friend of the 28-year-old busted today in connection with this weekend's New York-area bombings told the Herald the suspect made a life-changing trip to Afghanistan 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," friend Flee Jones, 27, said of suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami. "And it was shocking. I'm trying to understand what's going on. I've never seen him like this."

?Police this morning released a photo of Rahami, an Afghan immigrant and U.S. citizen, wanted for questioning in the bombings that rocked a Manhattan neighborhood and a New Jersey shore town. Rahami was taken into custody after a gunfight in nearby Linden today at 11:20 a.m. (See that story here…)

The terror suspect's arrest came after investigators this morning swarmed a chicken restaurant and apartment here in connection with the hunt for Rahami, Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage told the Herald.

“They’re going to be in there for a few hours investigating not only the fried chicken place but the residences upstairs,” Bollwage said.

Bollwage told the Herald the search began after five people were pulled over on the Belt Parkway last night in connection with the bombing in Chelsea. That led to the search of First American Fried Chicken and the apartment above it in Elizabeth, Bollwage said, but it was unclear how the people detained were connected to the restaurant.

In addition to the blast in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday that injured dozens, a pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town before a charity 5K race and an unexploded pressure cooker device was found blocks away from the explosion site in Chelsea. Yesterday, five explosive devices were discovered at an Elizabeth train station.

FBI agents as well as state and local police were in the eatery and the apartment upstairs, which are cordoned off by yellow crime tape. Investigators towed a black Toyota sedan away from the street in front of the restaurant this morning.

The mayor said the restaurant has been slapped by local officials in the past for staying open late, but had never been flagged for anything serious.

“They’ve been monitored for code enforcement and noise complaints over the years, but we’ve never suspected anything like this,” he said.

According to an Elizabeth resident, Rahami worked the register at the restaurant and was in charge when his father was gone.

Jampier Perez told the Herald the family who ran the restaurant seemed “pretty calm, chill.”

This morning, as a giant media horde watched federal agents comb the building, he was shaken.

“I could’ve went there for food one day and something could’ve happened,’ he said.