The city of Elizabeth, New Jersey, had some issues with the family of suspected New York City bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, and the business they owned, Mayor Christian Bollwage said Monday.
However, the suspect himself was not on local law enforcement's radar.
"We had some code enforcement problems and noise complaints," Bollwage said during a press conference Monday, commenting about the family-owned First American Fried Chicken restaurant. "When they opened in 2002, they ran a business for 24 hours."
Following several neighborhood complaints about congregations of people and noise, Elizabeth's city council in 2009 passed an ordinance, specific to the restaurant, to force the business to close at 10 p.m.
"The police had to enforce that ordinance, at which time the suspect's father and two brothers took the city of Elizabeth to court," said Bollwage. "In October of 2012, the courts ruled in the city's favor that we were capable of closing that facility at 10 in the evening as a quality of life issue."
On Monday, FBI and police raided the business and the apartment, on the second story, where Rahami lived with his family. CNN reported Monday afternoon that at least one box of evidence was taken out of the building, and two cars were towed away.
People living near the restaurant told The New York Times that the business often had loud crowds past midnight, with one neighbor saying he often found patrons loitering in his yard and urinating in his driveway.
However, the neighbor said the Rahamis did not comply with the special ordinance, and once one of the suspect's older brothers fought with an officer who came to shut down the business. He told the Times the brother ran away to Afghanistan.
Rahami was captured in nearby Linden, New Jersey, after he was found sleeping in the doorway of a bar, Mayor Derek Armstead said. He opened fire after police woke him, shooting one officer in the stomach and another in the hand. The officer who was shot in the abdomen was wearing a Kevlar vest, which protected him.
The suspect then started shooting "indiscriminately," Armstead said.
Bollwage confirmed that a traffic stop conducted during the weekend by FBI agents led to the search warrant being issued in his town.
Union County Prosecuting Attorney Grace Park, also speaking at the press conference, said Rahami was undergoing surgery for the gunshot wounds he sustained, but she had no further details about his condition.
She also refused further details on Rahami's capture and arrest, or if he and his family had been on law enforcement's radar.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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