N.J. Bombing Suspect Pleads Not Guilty From His Hospital Bed

The man accused in three separate bombing incidents in New York and New Jersey pleaded not guilty Thursday from his hospital bed.

"Yeah," Ahmad Khan Rahimi said to Union County Public Defender Peter Liguori, according to nj.com, when Ligouri asked if knew the charges against him.

Rahimi appeared in Union County Superior Court just after 2 p.m. via Skype, speaking in a barely audible voice when responding to county Superior Court Judge Regina Caulfield, according to nj.com.

Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized United States citizen who is suspected to be involved in bombings in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, was caught in September, according to authorities.

Read more: NJ Man Was Funny, Mysterious Student Who Became Captured Terror Suspect, Reports Say

Rahami was taken into custody by police in Linden after he was wounded in a shootout that left two city officers injured, according to Union County officials. He has been at University Hospital in Newark for about a month.

Rahami was captured after police received a tip from an eyewitness who saw a person sleeping in a doorway at a bar where the suspect apparently sought shelter from the rain, according to Linden Police Capt. James Sarnicki.

The eyewitness called the police. As police approached the vehicle, the man opened fire on police.

Sarnicki said an officer, acting after getting a tip, approached the man and ordered the suspect to show his hands. The suspect pulled a handgun and fired, striking the officer — who was wearing a bulletproof vest — in the abdomen area. Another bullet grazed an officer in the head.

One officer returned fire as the suspect began to flee, and then the suspect fired his weapon randomly at passing vehicles, police said.

Multiple officers responded to the scene, and Rahami was shot more than once, Sarnicki said. The suspect was conscious and awake at the scene, according to Sarnicki.

Police said they also suspected he was involved in the planting of bombs near the Elizabeth train station earlier in the day, just a few miles away from where he was arrested.

Rahami was a somewhat quiet, sometimes funny but often mysterious man whose well-dressed ways were apparent in his yearbook photo, friends say, which was shared by people who knew him on social media.

Rahami was born on Jan. 23, 1988, in Afghanistan. His last known address was in Elizabeth, but he moved around a lot, friends say. Some remembered him when he was a freshman at Columbia High School in Maplewood, but his personality began to change in recent years as he became more interested in his background.

Rahami’s family lives above and operates First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, and the family has had a sour relationship with the city ever since the restaurant stopped being a 24-hour-a-day operation, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said.

Story by Tom Davis and Colin Miner

Photo courtesy of News 4 New York