Ahmad Khan Rahami’s father said he had “no idea” about his son’s alleged involvement in the terror attack in New York City and New Jersey Saturday.
“Did you know that your son was doing this?” NBC’s Kerry Sanders asked Ahmad’s father Mohammad in an on the spot interview while he was seated in his car.
“No,” he replied.
“You had no idea?” Sanders pressed.
“No idea,” Mohammad replied.
“And when you hear now that he’s been accused of this do you believe it?” Sanders asked. “Do you believe it? Sir?”
“I’m not sure what’s going on exactly,” he replied, adding: “Yeah I’m not sure what’s happening exactly. But I think so. It’s very hard right now to talk okay? Thank you.”
Mohammad brought his family to the United States from Afghanistan, where Ahmad was born. He runs a fried chicken joint in New Jersey called American First chicken, which was raided by the FBI Monday after Ahmad was suspected of planting the various bombs in New York City and New Jersey.
“The father used to be a Mujahedeen in Afghanistan,” a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and has known the family for 18 years, told Haaretz. “He is from the same city where I was deployed as a marine.”
Ahmad made multiple trips to Afghanistan, reports Reuters, including one a few years ago that a man claiming to be his childhood friend said led to a spiritual transformation.
He is suspected of setting off the bomb in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan that injured 29 people Saturday night, and of planting another nearby, as well as one near a New Jersey train station and another on the route of a Marine Corps charity run that exploded but caused no injuries.
Five of Ahmad’s family members were detained by the FBI Saturday night.
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