The homemade bombs built by Ahmad Khan Rahami and placed in locations across New York and New Jersey over the weekend were constructed using materials he purchased on eBay, Vice reports. Rahami now faces charges for "bombing a place of public use" and "attempted murder," as well as a charge for the "use of weapons of mass destruction."
Rahami began collecting the odds and ends for such weapons in June, FBI special agent Peter Licata said:
[Rahami's] shopping list allegedly included electronic circuit boards and "electric igniters" intended to be used "for fireworks," as well as 200 "hardened lead milling balls" and two packages of .50 caliber "sling shot ammo." Those items, Licata wrote, were used as detonators and shrapnel in the pressure cooker bombs that Rahami placed in Chelsea.On Aug. 10, Rahami purchased five pounds of citric acid from eBay. The listing for the item described it as "great for bath bombs and candy making." In addition to its many benign uses, Licata noted that citric acid is a "precursor chemical commonly used in improvised explosives." It can be used to make the explosive compound HMTD, which was reportedly found inside a second pressure cooker bomb in Chelsea that failed to detonate.
When buying the ingredients for his weapons, Rahami apparently intentionally misspelled his name as "Rahimi." The FBI says they have cell phone video of him testing a weapon on Sept. 15 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It was a success. There was "loud noise and flames," the FBI documents say, "followed by billowing smoke and laughter."
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Sudoku hard: August 23, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
