Apparently Ahmad Khan Rahami took a trip to Afghanistan a couple years ago, and when he returned he shocked his friend with how religious he’d become:
BOSTON HERALD – A man who described himself as a childhood friend of the man wanted in connection with the New York City bombing told the Herald the suspect had made a life-changing trip to Afghanistan two years ago.
“At one point he left to go to Afghanistan, and two years ago he came back, popped up out of nowhere and he was real religious,” friend Flee Jones, 27, said of suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami. “And it was shocking. I’m trying to understand what’s going on. I’ve never seen him like this.”
Here’s more from the article on where Rahami worked in New Jersey:
FBI agents as well as state and local police are in the eatery and the apartment upstairs, which are cordoned off by yellow crime tape. Investigators towed a black Toyota sedan away from the street in front of the restaurant this morning.
The mayor said the restaurant has been slapped by local officials in the past for staying open late, but had never been flagged for anything serious.
“They’ve been monitored for code enforcement and noise complaints over the years, but we’ve never suspected anything like this,” he said.
According to an Elizabeth resident, Rahami worked the register at the restaurant and was in charge when his father was gone.
Jampier Perez told the Herald the family who ran the restaurant seemed “pretty calm, chill.”
This morning, as a giant media horde watched federal agents comb the building, he was shaken.
“I could’ve went there for food one day and something could’ve happened,’ he said.
Just like the Boston bombers. I wonder if the FBI missed this trip to Afghanistan too?