Two years before Ahmad Khan Rahami allegedly planted homemade bombs in New York City and New Jersey, his father reportedly said Rahami was a terrorist in a statement that he later recanted.
There were conflicting reports about the conditions under which Rahami’s father, Mohammad, made the remark.
Rahami, who was captured on Monday after a massive manhunt and shootout with police, was arrested in 2014 for a domestic incident in which he was accused of stabbing his brother, the New York Times reported. According to that report, his father called Rahami a terrorist to local police.
New Jersey police passed that information to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. The JTTF then opened an assessment, which the Times notes is the bureau’s most basic investigation. Officials interviewed Mohammad Rahami, who later recanted the statement, but it’s unclear whether they interviewed Ahmad Rahami.
An anonymous official told the newspaper that the father made the “terrorist” remark out of anger at his son.
The Times report does not say what became of the JTTF investigation.
But NBC News’ Pete Williams reported on-air that during the domestic incident, a neighbor heard Mohammad Rahami call his son a terrorist. The neighbor called police and reported the remark to responding officers.
When JTTF investigators interviewed Rahami’s father, he said the remark was an outburst and that he did not believe his son was a terrorist but didn’t like the people his son spent time with.
Citing anonymous law enforcement sources, Williams reported Rahami was jailed for the domestic incident. The assessment concluded there was no evidence of a terrorism connection, he reported, and the case was closed.
This story has been updated.
