The FBI and NYPD are looking for two men who took a suitcase from 27th Street Saturday night — and left behind the bomb that was sitting inside it.
The bureau's New York office released a photo of the two men Wednesday, saying it was taken between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday on 27th between Sixth and Seventh avenues. One of the men appears to be wearing a tan or gray long-sleeved dress shirt and black slacks, while the other is apparently in a light red or pink polo shirt and jeans.
"They are witnesses, we are very interested in talking to them and hearing about how they found the bag," Jim Waters, head of the NYPD's counterterrorism bureau, said Wednesday. "They found the bag, opened it, found the device -- a pressure cooker -- and took the bag. They are witnesses. There are no criminal charges. I want to stress that."
Authorities were running down several tips phoned in to police after the release of the video Wednesday, a senior law enforcement official said.
The pressure cooker bomb inside the suitcase was allegedly planted by Ahmad Rahami, a New Jersey resident who was charged with planting that device and one that exploded on 23rd Street, injuring 31 people, Saturday night. He is also charged with planting the pipe bomb that exploded in a trash bin along a Marine 5K race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, hours earlier.
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[NATL-NY] Bombs in New Jersey, New York Spark Manhunt
Rahami continues to recover in a hospital after he was shot 10 times in the confrontation with police in Linden, New Jersey, that led to his capture Monday. Two officers who were wounded have been released from the hospital. Rahami has been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer in connection with that shootout.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday Rahami would face terror charges in New York first, and that the Department of Justice planned to bring him to the city "in the near future." She says the charges reflect the Justice Department's "unwavering determination to finding, capturing and prosecuting all those who attempt to commit or commit acts of terror against our nation."
