NEW YORK CITY — The father of Chelsea bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami told law enforcement officials his son was "a terrorist" after the younger Rahami was arrested in 2014 for a domestic violence incident, sources told DNAinfo New York.
Mohammad Rahami said he told the FBI about his concerns after his son was arrested for allegedly stabbing one of his four brothers in a leg during a fight in their Elizabeth, New Jersey, home.
He told reporters on Tuesday that he warned federal agents because his son was out of control.
"He was doing bad . . . and I put him in jail," the elder Rahami said, adding that Ahmad had stabbed his brother, Nasser "for no reason" and was "hurting my wife."
Although sources said Mohammad Rahami later recanted his statements, he said Tuesday that "they didn't do the job."
The FBI followed up with Rahami but he recanted his statements, sources said. No further investigation was made.
At the time, Ahmad Khan Rahami was serving time in a local jail, where he remained for roughly three months before the charge was dropped after the brother also recanted, and the family said they would no longer cooperate.
In other developments:
► Investigators found a rambling notebook belonging to Rahami that is filled with Jihadi-related rants, and Al Qaeda references including to Anwar Al-Alawaki, a former U.S. citizen turned inspirational Al Qaeda spokesman who was killed by a drone strike in 2011.
► Rahami’s wife, a Pakistani national, left the country just days before last Saturday’s terror blasts in NYC and in New Jersey. Sources say federal agents are hoping to quiz her overseas, although they declined to say where.
► Sources also say the FBI has yet to identify where Rahami constructed the two pressure cooker bombs that he allegedly placed on West 23rd and West 27th streets in Chelsea, one of which exploded, injuring 30 people, and the array of pipe bombs that he planted in New Jersey, including one that exploded near the start of a charity run to benefit the Marine Corps.
► And in New York, NYPD officials were still hoping two young men, believed to be in their late 30s, who accidently discovered the pressure cooker bomb on West 27th Street and made off with the suitcase it was contained in will contact the police.
Sources say their actions, reported exclusively by DNAinfo New York on Monday, unwittingly deactivated the device. The triggering mechanism — a flip phone — was dislodged from the device, and eventually was linked to his family, which helped crack the case.
Investigators want to retrieve the suitcase as evidence and for possible clues.
