Police feel the need to step up security after recent attacks.
Photo courtesy of PBS

It seems like bombings are becoming an everyday occurrence in our world. On Saturday, September 17^th, there were multiple explosions in the New York/New Jersey area.

In Seaside Park, NJ there was one explosion at a Marine Corp charity race. Later that day, it was reported that there were two more explosives found in Seaside Park that luckily did not detonate.

Later Saturday night in New York City near Chelsea, there was an explosion that injured 29 people. As the NYPD was closing off the Chelsea area, four blocks away they found another “pressure cooker” bomb. The device had a handwritten note attached that referenced previous acts of terrorism such as the Boston Marathon bombings.

A man who they believed to be the bomber was seen on surveillance cameras with a duffle bag on West 23^rd street before the blast, and later the same night with the same duffle bag on West 27^th street. That duffel bag was found at the scene of the unexploded pressure cooker, which gives the police a lead on who the suspect is.

Police scene after one of the bombs detonated in New York City.
Photo Courtesy of International Business Times

On the evening of September 18^th, two homeless men found a package containing five bombs in a garbage can in Elizabeth, NJ. The police were quickly alerted. That backpack contained five bombs and was found in a wastebasket 500 feet from a train trestle around nine-thirty in the evening.

At a police traffic stop in New York, the police got a lead on where the suspected man’s last known address was, which was Elizabeth NJ, the same place where the backpack with explosives was found.

In the Elizabeth incident, the police used a robot to try to deactivate the bombs, however one of the bombs detonated while the other four were taken to an FBI laboratory.

The police have since discovered that the culprit of these violent acts is twenty-eight year old Ahmad Khan Rahami. Police are working on the investigation and will continue to question Rahami in the upcoming days.

Reagan Bossolina’17, Staff Writer