Photo Courtesy of NYPD
Brooklyn resident Akayed Ullah has been charged in Monday’s incident.
By Michael V. Cusenza
By noon on Monday, the City Police Department and federal authorities had already begun reaching out to the public for help with the investigation:
“The NYPD & @NewYorkFBI are looking to speak to anyone who was a witness at this morning’s explosion in the Port Authority Bus Terminal or that has information…” the department wrote on Twitter.
According to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, on Monday, at approximately 7:20 a.m., an improvised explosive device detonated inside a subway tunnel in or around the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal at West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. Shortly after the blast, members of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department located a man later identified as Akayed Ullah lying on the ground in the vicinity of the explosion. According to federal officials, surveillance footage captured Ullah walking through the terminal immediately prior to the explosion, and then falling to the ground after the IED had detonated.
Ullah was subsequently taken into custody by law enforcement. During the course of Ullah’s arrest, officers located on his person and in the surrounding area what appeared to be the components of an exploded pipe bomb.
The Brooklyn resident was charged on Tuesday with the detonation and attempted detonation of a bomb. In all, five people were hurt in the blast, with Ullah incurring the most severe injuries.
As he was taken into custody, Ullah made statements to cops after waiving his Miranda rights, federal authorities noted. Ullah admitted to, among other things, constructing the pipe bomb in his Flatlands apartment and carrying out the attack “for the Islamic State.”
Police Commissioner Jim O’Neill said Ullah’s act of terror “accomplished nothing.”
“It has not changed our way of life,” he continued. “It was a cowardly act, fueled by a false sense of purpose—motivated by propaganda in the shadows of the internet. What is clear is the resolve of New Yorkers to live in a free society, devoid of fear.”
