By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
In Elizabeth, Seaside Park and Chelsea, every bomb allegedly rigged by suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami featured a bonus for investigators: companion bombs that did not detonate. The unexploded bomb in Chelsea used a pressure cooker to house shrapnel like ball bearings, a flip phone timer and Christmas lights as detonators. It also reportedly contained Rahami’s fingerprints, which investigators IDed from his arrest record.
“When we do find unexploded bombs, they’re able to be dissected and taken apart. What they use, what type of explosives, their techniques. It all helps us, especially in an event where there’s multiple locations and multiple bombings,” said Lt. Jeff Klaus of the Union County Police Bomb Squad.
Two homeless guys in Elizabeth found the backpack containing five pipe bombs, apparently discarded near the train station. The Union County Police Bomb Squad sent in its larger robot to attempt deactivation, but one of the bombs exploded, blowing the arm off the robot. Nobody got hurt.
“It was very fortunate. The job worked out very well. Everybody came together and just did what they had to do. There was no second-guessing,” Klaus said.
The explosion left four bombs intact. Squad members packed them in a round steel compartment and sent them to the FBI at Quantico. As former FBI Special Agent Peter Ahearn explained, “When you have unexploded ordnance, it’s a treasure trove for forensics experts and investigators. Where you can leave behind either a trace of DNA or a fingerprint, which would be the most critical thing that you can leave behind. Components inside that bomb itself, you have to buy them somewhere, and a lot of these things have identification markers on them.”
Investigators look for a certain signature like the cell phone timers, which one bomb expert said showed Rahami may have been schooled in explosives. But the phones contained much more.
“Like the cell phone in this case where they were able to trace calls that he made on the cell phone, which is kind of surprising,” Ahearn said.
New Jersey’s got only nine county bomb squads. Union generally handles 10 calls a month. Essex and the State Police backed them up on Sunday night.
“From there of course law enforcement authorities went with the clues and followed up with very impressive speed,” said Union County Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski.
“Any of our equipment, any of our expertise, we all cooperate because we’re all in this together,” said Union County Freeholder Chairman Bruce Bergen.
The bomb squad’s operating mantra is, things explode. Ultimately the goal is, nobody dies. Remarkably, that’s been the case throughout this crisis. The investigation continues.