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Rahami called 'friendly,' but changed after Afghan visit

 
Published Sept. 20, 2016

To neighbors and customers of his family's storefront chicken takeout, Ahmad Khan Rahami was a quiet, friendly presence behind the counter who liked talking about cars and was generous with free food.

So when the 28-year-old Afghan immigrant was named Monday as the lead "person of interest" in bombings in New York and New Jersey, then apprehended hours later in a shootout with police, people in this gritty neighborhood a few miles from Newark's airport could scarcely believe it.

Rahami's father and brothers had long nursed tensions with local officials in Elizabeth, N.J., and some neighbors over the restaurant's late hours. But Rahami's demeanor — religiously devout, but far more likely to talk about worldly pursuits than his faith — never hinted at anything but goodwill, customers said.

"He'd always talk about his cars. He loved his Civics, he loved going fast," said Ryan McCann, a frequent customer at First American Fried Chicken, the restaurant that Rahami's father, Mohammed, has run since 2002. "He was so friendly he'd give us free chicken here and there, just because we shopped there so much."

Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, was taken into custody Monday after a shootout with police in the nearby town of Linden.

Rahami was not on any terror or no-fly watch lists, a law enforcement official said, but he had been interviewed by officials for immigration purposes.

Another law enforcement official said investigators pulled over a car, carrying three men and two women, that was "associated" with Rahami when it appeared headed toward an airport Sunday.

The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the case.

As FBI agents removed bags of evidence from the restaurant Monday afternoon, officials and residents recalled Rahami and his family, who shared an apartment over the business.

Flee Jones, 27, who said he had known Rahami since they were teenagers, told reporters gathered at the scene Monday that he had noticed a change in Rahami's personality after a trip to Afghanistan in 2014. When Rahami returned, he "got more religious" and dressed differently than before, Jones said.

"He was more quiet and more mature," Jones said. "I said, 'Oh where have you been?' And he said, 'Oh, vacation.' But I knew he went to Afghanistan because his little brother said it."

Andre Almeida, a customer at the restaurant for the past eight years, said he noticed when Rahami stopped wearing Western clothes after returning from Afghanistan a few years ago and started wearing "a little more ethnic clothing."

Neighbors had complained to Elizabeth officials that the Rahamis' restaurant was a late-night nuisance, said Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage.

Rahami's father and two brothers sued the city in 2011 after Elizabeth police cited the restaurant for staying open past 10 p.m., allegedly in violation a local ordinance. The Rahamis charged in the lawsuit that they were targeted by local police because they are Muslims.

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The harassment, the lawsuit alleged, was based largely on the complaints to officials by one neighbor who regularly walked into the restaurant to tell them that "Muslims don't belong here," and "Muslims are trouble."

Adjudication of the lawsuit was put on hold in 2011 when the elder Rahami traveled to Pakistan and was unable to return to the U.S. in time, court filings show. The lawsuit was eventually terminated in 2012.

"He was just very quiet," said Jorge Vasquez, who owns a business a block over and frequently visited the restaurant.

"It's shocking," Vasquez said. "No one expected anything like that. He was just a very quiet kid."