Since my last post we have substantially more information on two emerging developments apparently tied to the Chelsea bombing story.
From news reports and an FBI alert we know there was a traffic stop earlier this evening tied to the Chelsea bombing. The stop occurred on the Belt Parkway under the Verrazano Bridge, apparently coming from Staten Island into Brooklyn. There were conflicting reports about whether there were arrests made. But the balance of information now indicates that five men were taken into custody and are currently being questioned. A 12:44 AM Associated Press story reported the “five people in the car were being questioned at an FBI building in lower Manhattan”, according an unnamed government official and a law enforcement source.
Around the time this was happening, there was another suspected bomb found at or near the New Jersey Transit train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The New York Daily News had reported multiple bombs in Elizabeth. But in a press conference this evening, Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage appeared to refer to only one suspected bomb. An official New York City alert from 11:36 PM said trains going from Penn Station south into New Jersey had been temporarily halted due to “police activity” in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
From a NJ.com report …
According to Mayor Christian Bollwage two men found the package in a waste basket on North Broad Street and Julian Place around 9:30 p.m.
The men took the package “because they thought it was of some value,” walked for a bit, then saw wires and a pipe, dropped the package and notified Elizabeth Police.
The Union County Bomb Squad was called in and used a drone to examine the package, the mayor said.
What’s not clear at this point is whether these two incidents were connected – whether the discovery of the suspected bomb in Elizabeth led to the arrests in New York City.
