The man accused of detonating a homemade pipe bomb strapped to his body in the subway tunnel leading from the Times Square subway lines to the A train and Port Authority lived with his family on Ocean Parkway off of Newkirk Avenue in Kensington.
According to published reports, Akayah Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant, left for his attempt at being a suicide bomber from the F train subway station at 18th and McDonald avenues.
Once in Times Square, Ullah detonated the explosives, but they fizzled resulting in non life-threatening burns to Ullah, injuring three others and causing havoc in the subway system – nothing too unusual or out of the norm for veteran straphangers.
In the early afternoon, law enforcement officials searched the apartment of the Ullah family on Ocean Parkway. While the investigation continues, preliminary reports point to Ullah acting alone, but being inspired by Islamic State (ISIS) internet propaganda.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m., a lawyer emerged from the building to make a statement on behalf of the Ullah family. Albert Fox Cahn, legal director of CAIR New York, spoke. “While we are heartbroken by the violence, we are outraged at the behavior of law enforcement.”
Cahn claimed that law enforcement officials held children as young as 4-years old in the cold and interrogated a high school student without a lawyer. When pressed for details Cahn did not respond.
Waqas, a 28-year-old neighbor originally from Pakistan who would not give his last name, was at the apartment scene. He said, “This is not Islam. This is not Muslims. We have to go after the influencers. This is what happens when people are taught from when they are young to hate. This is a wonderful country.”
Ullah was charged with making a terrorist threat, supporting an act of terrorism and possession of a weapon, police said.
