The father of Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspect in the weekend’s New York and New Jersey bombings, warned law enforcement two years ago that his son was a threat.
Mohammad Rahami made the statement to New Jersey police in 2014 following his son’s arrest after a domestic dispute and being accused of stabbing his brother.
According to a report by the New York Times, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task force received the information and opened an assessment, the most basic of investigations. Rahami’s father was interviewed, but he recanted his comments.
It is not clear if Ahmad Rahami himself was interviewed by law enforcement officers.
Mohammad Rahami said he made the comment out of anger.
On Tuesday morning outside the family’s restaurant in Elizabeth, N.J., he told reporters, “I called the FBI two years ago.”
After storming away angrily and refusing to answer when asked by a reporter, “Do you think your son is a terrorist?” he eventually said: “No.”
“And the FBI, they know that,” Mohammad Rahami said.
According to a source, Ahmad Rahami spent three months in jail on the domestic incident charges, but a grand jury declined to indict him.
