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Chelsea Bomber Pleads Not Guilty to Attempted Murder in N.J., Officials Say

By Aidan Gardiner | December 20, 2016 6:04pm
 Chelsea bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahimi was indicted on federal terrorism charges Wednesday.
Chelsea bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahimi was indicted on federal terrorism charges Wednesday.
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FBI

MANHATTAN — The man who detonated a pressure-cooker bomb in Chelsea, injuring 31 people, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to trying to kill New Jersey officers in a shootout as they arrested him, prosecutors said.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi, who also uses the last name Rahami, waged a two-state terror campaign over a September weekend until police spotted him sleeping in the alcove of a bar in Linden, New Jersey, on Sept. 19, officials said.

As officers woke him, Rahimi pulled his gun and opened fire, sparking a shootout in which he tried to kill officers Angel Padilla, Peter Hammer, Mark Kahana, David Guzman and Daniel Diaz, according to the Union County Prosecutor's office.

After getting shot and arrested, Rahimi was charged in both New York and New Jersey.

On Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges stemming from the shootout, prosecutors said. He was remanded back into custody and is due back in New Jersey court on Feb. 28, they added.

Rahimi had previously pleaded not guilty in what prosecutors called a "first appearance" while lying in a hospital bed.

He was indicted on Nov. 16 in Manhattan federal court for planting two bombs in Chelsea, only one of which went off.

The second may have been disabled when two passersby removed it from a suitcase and walked away with the luggage.