Ahmad Khan Rahami's Father Was a Mujahideen in Afghanistan, Neighbor Says
Ahmad Khan Rahami came back from Afghanistan visit much more religious and quiet, childhood friend says. Father was against Taliban, lived with family above their restaurant.
After police took away Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghanistan-born American suspected in a series of blasts in New York and New Jersey over the weekend, neighbors, gathering outside his family's home in Elizabeth, New Jersey, described a hardworking family still very much tied to their home country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to question Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, in the bombings that wounded 29 people in New York City on Saturday, as well as other devices that exploded in New Jersey without causing injury.
Rahami will be charged on 5 counts of attempted murder and gun charges, law officials said.
Rahami was taken into custody in Linden, New Jersey. The Rahami family home is 20 minutes away, in a quiet neighborhood, mostly occupied by Latin American immigrants in Elizabeth. As neighbors gathered outside, police escorted a young boy out of house. "That's the younger brother, he's about 14-year-old," Jonathan Wagner, a neighbor and a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, told Haaretz.
Wagner said that he knew the Rahami family for 18 years, and even went to school with one of his brothers, Nasim.
"The father used to be a Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. He is from the same city where I was deployed as a marine," Wagner told Haaretz, adding that the father, Mohammed, used to say the Taliban was ruining Afghanistan.
Rahami traveled to Afghanistan several years ago and afterward grew a beard and began wearing religious clothing, Flee Jones, a childhood friend, told Reuters.The reason for the trip and its full impact on Rahami was not immediately known, but Jones said Rahami became more serious and quiet.
Jones said he learned about the travel from one of Rahami's brothers and last saw Rahami about two years ago."He was way more religious," Jones said, adding, "I never knew him as the kind of person who would do anything like this."
The family lived above their restaurant, a fried chicken shack wedged between a beauty salon and a shop advertising money transfers and computer help. Ahmad, however, didn't live with them, and according to Wagner, used to drive an Uber taxi. "I used to come eat here, they were very nice people, they let me eat for free when I didn't have money," he said.
According to Rudy Deschamps, 65, the Rahami family are "just people, doing business like you and me." He said they were hardworking, often keeping the business open late into the night, when other restaurants were already closed. "It's a nice neighborhood, you can walk home at 2 A.M., you don't have to look behind your shoulder," he said.
Neighbor trouble
According to Reuters, the family fried chicken restaurant was cause for frequent skirmishes with neighbors.
Rahami was not listed on U.S. counterterrorism databases, three U.S. officials told Reuters. But he was well known to Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage for the frequent complaints about noise at the family's restaurant, on a commercial strip of a racially diverse, working-class neighborhood.
"The suspect was not on the radar of local law enforcement, but the fried chicken place that ... the family owned, we had some code enforcement problems and noise complaints," Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told reporters.
His father, Mohammed Rahami, registered the business as Khan Fried Chicken in 2006, but four years later changed the name to First American Fried Chicken, citing "popularity," according to state records.
On Monday authorities cordoned off an area around the building and were removing boxes. Officers were on the restaurant's roof, going in and out of the residence, and one officer leaned out of a window, taking pictures.
The restaurant's employees were serious and businesslike, rarely interacting with customers more than they had to, said Josh Sanchez, 24, and Jessica Casanova, 23, who called themselves frequent customers.
By 2008, Elizabeth police were battling with First American Fried Chicken over the restaurant's 24-hour schedule. A city ordinance barred take-out stores from staying open past 10 P.M.
The restaurant was cited, and although the family appealed the decision, a New Jersey appeals court ruled against the family in 2014, according to records.
A lawyer who represented the Rahami family in the dispute could not be reached for comment on Monday.
The family filed a lawsuit around 2010, claiming they were being discriminated against, Bollwage said, adding that the city's actions involving the restaurant were in no way related to the family's religion or ethnic origin.
Reuters contributed to this report
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