New Jersey Man Convicted of Planting Pressure-Cooker Bombs in NYC
A mangled dumpster sits on the sidewalk at the site of an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City on Sept. 18, 2016. Justin Lane / Pool via Getty Images
A New Jersey man was convicted Monday of planting two pressure-cooker bombs on New York City streets, including one that injured 30 people with a rain of shrapnel when it detonated in a bustling neighborhood on a weekend night last summer.
The verdict in Manhattan came after a two-week trial of 29-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahimi, an Afghanistan-born man living in Elizabeth. The charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place, carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.
Prosecutors said Rahimi considered himself "a soldier in a holy war against Americans" and was inspired by the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda to carry out the late summer attacks in New York and New Jersey.
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As a bomb squad investigator testified, prosecutors showed jurors a mangled, waist-high trash bin that was sent flying 120 feet across a busy street by the bomb. The government called it a miracle that nobody was killed by the explosive, which scattered ball bearings meant to serve as shrapnel.
If that wasn't enough, Bove said, jurors could look at a small notebook that was on Rahimi when he was arrested two days after the attack following a shootout with police in New Jersey.
The prosecutor said Rahimi's written words provided a confession as he took responsibility for the bombings in a "claim of credit" for attacks that left him feeling proud.
Feelign proud?
Obviously the guy's mentally ill.