Ahmad Rahami, the naturalized 28-year-old native of Afghanistan hunted in connection with a series of bombings in New York City and New Jersey over the weekend, has been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after a gun battle that left two officers wounded, officials said. 

Rahami was taken into custody earlier Monday after the shootout that left officers Angel Padilla and Peter Hammer injured. Federal charges were still pending, and the U.S. attorneys in New York and New Jersey will likely charge him with terrorism in the coming days, FBI officials said on the scene in Linden Monday evening. 

Padilla was shot in the torso during the takedown in Linden, New Jersey, but he was not seriously wounded because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. It wasn't clear where Hammer was hit, but both officers were expected to make full recoveries. 

Rahami was shot 10 times, including once in the leg, according to FBI officials on the scene, and was taken to a hospital by ambulance. He is expected to survive, and video showed him alert and conscious. Photos from the scene showed the thickly bearded suspect on the rain-soaked sidewalk, his hands cuffed behind his back, his shirt rolled up revealing his bare chest as he lifted his head up off the ground. 

Officials said he underwent surgery, but did not have additional updates on his condition.

In addition to the counts of attempted murder, Rahami is charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and second-degree possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Monday evening. 

Bail for Rahami in the Linden officer shootings has been set at $5.2 million. It wasn't clear if he'd retained an attorney as of Monday night.

Authorities had been looking for Rahami in connection with bombings that rocked a crowded Manhattan neighborhood and a Jersey shore town over the weekend. A senior law enforcement official says a fingerprint collected from an unexploded device led investigators to Rahami as a suspect in the bombings at a Marine 5K race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and the blast in Chelsea.

It wasn't clear if the suspect was linked to five pipe bombs — one of which was inadvertently detonated by a robot — found at a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, late Sunday, not far from where Rahami was later captured. 

As a manhunt was underway for the suspect, a bar owner called police about a man sleeping in the doorway of his business, police said. When officers arrived, they tried to rouse him and the man lifted his head. They recognized him as the man pictured in an FBI wanted poster released hours earlier and told him to show his hands.

Instead, according to police, Rahami pulled out a gun and fired, hitting one of the cops. He then got up and started walking down the street, apparently randomly firing at passing vehicles, authorities said. Eventually, he was taken down. 

The blast in Chelsea injured 29 people, though all have since been released from the hospital. The explosion left twisted metal and shrapnel scattered across 23rd Street. An unexploded pressure cooker with a cellphone attached and wires protruding was found four blocks away; it was taken to a firing range, where it was safely detonated. 

The discovery of the Manhattan devices came hours after a pipe bomb exploded in a trash bin at the Marine 5K in Seaside Park. Authorities had said they believed the device had been timed to go off as participants were running by, but the race had been late. It was canceled and no one was hurt.

Old-fashioned flip phones were found on the devices in Manhattan and in Seaside Park, law enforcement officials close to the investigation told NBC 4 New York. A senior law enforcement official said information obtained from the phones connected to two unexploded devices also pointed to Rahami.

The investigation into the devices found in Elizabeth was ongoing, and authorities were raiding a fried chicken restaurant owned by Rahami's father and several other buildings in the area as part of the probe. 

Rahami's father, Mohammed Sr., said little to an NBC News reporter near their home in Elizabeth Monday evening, beyond that he was not aware of any plot his son was engaged in.

"I'm not sure what's going on," he said in his car. "It's very hard right now to talk." 

Meanwhile, five people believed to be relatives or associates of Rahami were taken into custody Saturday during a traffic stop on the Verrazano Bridge. No one was charged; the stop came as authorities pursued a "promising lead" into surveillance video obtained from two sites in Manhattan where explosive devices were found -- one on 23rd Street and one on 27th Street. 

Rahami is believed to be the man seen on surveillance video at two locations where the explosive devices were recovered. 

One video shows a man putting an object in a dumpster near 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, followed by an explosion some time later. Another video from 27th Street shows a man leave a piece of luggage on the sidewalk; that piece of luggage contained a bag with a pressure cooker inside. 

The series of incidents put the entire tri-state area on edge. Calls to police about suspicious packages skyrocketed amid heightened tensions. Police at Rutgers University urged students and faculty to clear an area near a parking garage at the New Brunswick campus as they investigated a report of a suspicious package, which was deemed safe an hour or so later. In Paterson, New Jersey, officials also responded to a report of a suspicious item, and social media chatter highlighted a dozen similar emergency responses in New York. 

The Chelsea explosion left many rattled in a city that had marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks only a week earlier and that was schedule to hold a United Nations meeting Monday to address the refugee crisis in Syria. 

Witnesses described a deafening blast that shattered storefront windows and injured bystanders with shrapnel in the mostly residential neighborhood on the city's west side.

It was new NYPD Commissioner Jimmy O'Neill's first full day on the job.

Former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who stepped down just last week, said Monday morning this was probably the first successful terrorist attack in the city since 9/11.

After hedging on any potential terror angle over the weekend, Mayor de Blasio said at a news briefing Monday that there is "every reason to believe" the bombings in the city and in New Jersey were "an act of terror."

Authorities said, though, that there was no indication of a terror cell in the area, and officials said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the attacks.

Two senior officials confirmed to NBC News that Rahami was not on a U.S. terrorist watchlist. One of the sources, a former senior intelligence official with the NYPD, says that the NYPD intelligence bureau does have its own list of individuals called the "persons of interest" list, but that source said "the NYPD did not have this guy on the radar" before Saturday. He also has no arrest record in New York City over the last five years, a source said. 

At this point, federal officials do not believe there are any other active co-conspirators. 

On Sunday, Gov. Cuomo deployed nearly 1,000 additional State Police and National Guard troops across the city to guard transit stations and area airports as a precaution. He called for an additional 1,000 troops Monday. 

The White House said President Obama was briefed throughout the night and early Monday on the investigation into the bombs. At a briefing Monday, the president called the people of New York and New Jersey resilient, and lauded the efforts of counterterrorism officials working on the case.

"Folks around here, ya know, they don't get scared," the president said. "They are tough, they are resilient, they go about their business every single day. That's the kind of strength that makes me proud to be an American."

Cuomo said Monday he had spoken with the president about the evolving situation, and pledged that whoever was responsible would be brought to justice. 

"The disruption is going to be to their lives, not our lives," Cuomo said. "We've been through a lot worse." 

One of the most recognizable stars from the big screen will make a rare appearance before news cameras on Tuesday to talk about a crime that is costing his fans big money. Mark Hamill, known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" film series, sat down with the NBC4 I-Team at his Malibu home to give an inside look at who is profiting off his fame, before the announcement.

After watching Hamill take on the Dark Side in four blockbuster sequels and prequels, fans are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for his autograph. Hamill says there's just one problem: many of the autographed memorabilia pieces on the market do not bear his real signature, leaving fans with worthless fakes.

"I've heard a couple of stories that just break your heart because there's no way to compensate them," Hamill told NBC4. "A couple of people I've actually sought out and sent real autographs after hearing how extreme their circumstances were."

Las Vegas police responded to the city's international airport Monday evening after a shooting that appeared to be related to domestic violence, authorities said.

There were few details on the shooting available Monday night, though the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department called the shooting an ongoing investigation at about 6:40 p.m. PT

Police told NBC affiliate KSNV that two people were shot at the Terminal 1 parking structure.

The incident was reported at 5:56 p.m. PT, according to the official McCarran International Airport Twitter feed. Two people were taken to local hospitals, according to that Twitter account. An earlier tweet said their condition wasn't immediately clear.

The shooting suspect was not on airport properly shortly before 7 p.m. PT, according to another tweet from the airport. it wasn't clear if that meant a suspect was at large.

Police cruisers could be seen near a parking garage soon after the shooting.

Check back for more information on this developing story.

Students at American University protested Monday night over racial incidents on campus earlier in September.

Protesters said they are fed up with “hate-filled incidents” against African-American students at AU. They were frustrated that two Sept. 8 incidents, one where an African-American woman said a banana was thrown at her and another African-American woman found a rotten banana and obscene drawings on her dorm room door, are not being investigated as hate crimes.

The AU students were joined by students from George Washington University, Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia.

Alaina Mastrippolito, a junior at American University, thought the events reported on campus were hard to believe. She came to the protest, because she wanted to hear the thoughts of the black community on campus.

"AU promotes being such an inclusive community, and it's hard to see that some students are just on the complete opposite spectrum," she said. "It's obviously different to see what has been reported and what the students are actually thinking.”

With the number of people at the event, Mastrippolito is hopeful that there will be a change.

"But once again, the change starts with us," she said. "So it takes the effort of everyone not just a certain group."

Sydnee Martin, a freshman at George Washington University, saw only a part of the protest but said seeing so many people standing up for a certain reason is something that many people should know about.

"Not many people knew about this [protest] that happened today, and I just think it needs to get out there so people become more aware of it," she said.

She said she believes the events on campus were racially charged.

Student protesters met with university officials over the weekend at a town hall meeting. They said they were unsatisfied by the response of the school administration and called for the suspension of the students responsible.

American University said the students responsible for the incidents have been disciplined. American University President Neil Kerwin has called for campus events to address racial problems and create a more inclusive culture.

Kerwin issued a statement on Monday: “We will confront racist expressions with forceful condemnation and respond to discrimination with every tool at our disposal. It is incumbent on the university to respond clearly and to educate those who cause harm with their insensitivity and ignorance.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie falsely claimed that Donald Trump did not question President Barack Obama’s birthplace “on a regular basis” after the president produced his long-form birth certificate in April 2011.

In fact, Trump continued for years to traffic in baseless rumors that Obama was not born in the U.S.

Trump tweeted in 2012 that an “extremely credible source” told him the president’s birth certificate “is a fraud,” and suggested in 2014 that Obama’s college records would show his real “place of birth.” He even cast conspiratorial doubts on the sudden death of the Hawaii health director in 2013, two years after she approved the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate.

Trump’s history of questioning Obama’s birth certificate dates to at least 2011, when the businessman was contemplating a run for president.

Obama in 2008 produced his official “Certification of Live Birth” — which FactCheck.org staffers touched, examined and photographed, as we wrote in our “Born in the U.S.A.” article. In 2011, Trump insisted — falsely — that Obama’s “Certification of Live Birth” was “not a birth certificate,” when in fact it satisfies the legal requirements for proving citizenship and obtaining a passport. We covered that and other false claims Trump was making at the time in our story “Donald, You’re Fired!”

After Trump revived the so-called birther movement in 2011, Obama received an exemption from the Hawaii Department of Health to release his long-form birth certificate. Obama produced the form on April 27, 2011, as reported in our story “Indeed, Born in the U.S.A.”

Christie insisted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump in 2011 accepted that Obama was born in Hawaii, when in fact Trump for years continued to question the authenticity of the long-form birth certificate.

CNN’s Jake Tapper, Sept. 18: I want to ask you about this birther thing, because you, as governor, as a politician, you have stood up to some of the darker impulses in American politics. You have been clear for a long time that Barack Obama was born in the United States. Donald Trump, by contrast, he clung to the birther lie for years. He still isn’t apologetic about it. Do you understand why so many people, including African Americans, are upset with him over the issue?

Christie: Oh, listen, I made my position on it really clear a long time ago. And Donald has now made his position on it clear, which is that, after the president presented his birth certificate, Donald has said he was born in the United States, and that’s the end of the issue.

It was a contentious issue and, by the way, an issue that Patti Solis Doyle of the Clinton campaign in 2008 has recently admitted was an issue that Mrs. Clinton also injected into her campaign in 2008 in a very quiet, but direct way, against then Senator Obama.

And so, you know, the birther issue is a done issue. I have said it’s a done issue for a long time. And Donald Trump has said it’s a done issue now. And so we need to move on to the issues that are really important to the American people.

And, Jake, I got to tell you the truth. If you think that anyone is going to vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton or against either one of them based upon this issue, then I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the concerns of the American people. Let’s move on to the real issues.

Tapper: Well, just as a point of fact, again, Donald Trump did not accept when Barack Obama released his birth certificate in 2011. He kept up this whole birther thing until Friday. That’s five years. But we only have a little time left. So, I want to ask you …

Christie: No, but, Jake, that’s just not true. It’s not true that he kept it up for five years.

Tapper: Sure, he did.

Christie: It’s simply not true.

Tapper: It is true.

Christie: It wasn’t like he was talking — no, Jake, it wasn’t like — it wasn’t like he was talking about it on a regular basis until then.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus made a similar claim on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Priebus said that Trump at his Sept. 16 campaign event “came out and said, listen, I was involved in trying to figure this out as well, and I have determined that the president was born in Hawaii, just like I have said for years.”

Christie and Priebus are both wrong. Trump perpetuated the false narrative for years after Obama presented his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011.

ABC News tallied up 67 instances in which Trump tweeted or retweeted comments that questioned the legitimacy of Obama’s birth certificate. In some cases, Trump also promoted discredited conspiracies advanced by some of the most ardent believers in the “birther” falsehood.

On Aug. 6, 2012, Trump tweeted that an “extremely credible source” told him the president’s birth certificate “is a fraud.”

An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012

On Dec. 12, 2013, Trump tweeted about the death of Loretta Fuddy, the Hawaii health director who approved the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate in 2011. Trump used quotes around “birth certificate” and implied that Fuddy’s death was part of the birther conspiracy.

How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s “birth certificate” died in plane crash today. All others lived

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2013

The autopsy revealed that the 65-year-old woman died of an irregular heartbeat from the stress of the crash, as the Associated Press reported.

On Sept. 6, 2014, Trump was on Twitter again, urging hackers to “hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth.’”

Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama's college records (destroyed?) and check "place of birth"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2014

In this tweet, Trump advanced a long-discredited claim that Obama applied for and received a college scholarship for foreign students. It was, in fact, an April Fools’ Day hoax.

As we wrote more than seven years ago, a viral email circulated a fake Associated Press story dated April 1, 2009, that said Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College showed he applied for and obtained a Fulbright scholarship for foreign students. The email called it the “smoking gun.” But the AP at the time gave us a statement calling the story a fake. The story also claimed that the United States Justice Foundation investigated Obama’s campaign spending and found evidence the campaign misused funds to “block disclosure of any of [Obama’s] personal records.” But the executive director of that group told us in an email, “It’s all a hoax.”

During the presidential campaign, Trump refused to answer questions about Obama’s birthplace — until Sept. 16. A year ago, for example, comedian Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” asked Trump: “I’m going to throw you a big, fat meatball. This is the last time you ever have to address this question if you hit the ball. Barack Obama, born in the United States?” Trump replied, “I don’t talk about it anymore.”

More recently, Trump refused to answer the question in an interview with the Washington Post on Sept. 15, a day before he finally acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S.

It’s simply preposterous for Priebus to claim that Trump has been saying “for years” that Obama was born in the U.S., and for Christie to claim it is “not true” that Trump kept the conspiracy theory alive for years after the president produced his long-form birth certificate.

Christie is also off base when he says that Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, “has recently admitted [it] was an issue that Mrs. Clinton also injected into her campaign in 2008 in a very quiet, but direct way, against then Senator Obama.” That’s not what she said.

In a Sept. 16 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Solis Doyle said that a “rogue volunteer coordinator” in Iowa was fired when the campaign found out that the aide forwarded an email promoting the birthplace conspiracy. Solis Doyle called the incident “beyond the pale,” saying she called Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and apologized for it. “This was not the kind of campaign we wanted to run,” she said she told Plouffe.

Mayor de Blasio and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson walked on 23rd Street in Chelsea Tuesday morning and surveyed the building damage caused by the blast Saturday night.  

Johnson made brief remarks, thanking police officers and reasserting public vigilance. And he made it clear with the United Nations in town, Homeland vigilance will continue.

"There are literally thousands of personnel from DHS, led by Secret Service in partnership with the NYPD," he said. 

The visit comes after crime scene tape came down on West 23rd Street on Monday, just two days after a blast erupted along the stretch between Seventh and Sixth avenues, injuring 29 people and setting off a massive hunt for the person responsible.

As the barricades and blockades disappeared along Chelsea streets Monday night, something else moved in: a spirit of reflection.

De Blasio met with residents inside Malibu Diner, sitting down for coffee with Steve Rosenthal and Jennifer Gilson and bonding with them about family. The mayor said his own kids grew up in the shadow of 9/11 and tried to reassure the couple their young ones will be OK. 

"It's been stressful for a family with three kids," Rosenthal said. "But we are trying to move on and the kids are back to school." 

On Monday night, Reggie Jackson was on 23rd Street. He was dealing with his windshield, which was smashed by shrapnel during the blast. Jackson and his wife were upstairs Saturday night when an explosive device went off in what authorities now call a terror attack. Another bomb nearby never detonated.

Jackson said he and his wife normally sit in their SUV for a while before they go up to their apartment.

“We decided not to be in the car that night and it was a good thing,” Jackson said.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old man authorities believe planted the two Chelsea bombs and three pipe bombs in Seaside Park, New Jersey, was apprehended by police shortly after 10:30 a.m. Monday.

Claire Richter stood under a shredded overhang on West 23rd Street Monday night. The thirty-year Chelsea resident said the bombing “was just too close” and that the damaged street represents the state of security for an entire country these days, which has faced a new threat in soft target attacks. 

Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton called the bombing in Chelsea “probably the first significant successful terror attack [in New York City] since 9/11.”

“This is individual, little people with a lot of hate and a lot of resentment and they’re blowing up whatever they can,” Richter said.

As the Tuesday morning rush begins and the city continues on with its ceaseless grind, a few cops and a number of boarded-up windows will be the main indication that an act of terror was committed here just days ago. 

Several shop owners on the block said the blast blew out most windows and FDNY smashed out the rest. Daniel Peretz, the owner of King David Gallery, a frame shop, was in Israel when he learned he lost stacks of merchandise and every window on his shop. Across the street, the owner of OrangeTheory Fitness said "it's been a little bit surreal, just trying to get back to normal."

Each of the business owners that had surveillance footage of the blast say they've turned the video over to FBI. 

Councilman Corey Johnson, who was visiting the block Tuesday, said "it's going to take a little while to reacclimate, to get back on our feet and to ensure it sill feels safe."  

But some Chelsea residents were still out of their homes and neighbors here and elsewhere will undoubtedly be talking about the shock of this weekend for quite some time.

The Alameda County District Attorney on Monday filed felony charges against three more Bay Area law enforcement officers in the ongoing sexual exploitation case involving an East Bay teenager.

The case involves Jasmine, formerly referred to as Celeste Guap, who is at the center of a massive sex abuse scandal. The DA last week filed charges against two other officers tied to the case.

On Monday, the DA filed felony charges of oral copulation with a minor against former Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputy Ricardo Perez.

According to court documents, Jasmine said the two had sex about 10 times when she was 17 years old.

Perez acknowledged he had sexual encounters with the teen in his vehicle in a dirt turnout in the Oakland Hills, according to court documents.

The DA also filed a felony charge of oral copulation with a minor against Oakland police officer Giovanni Loverde. Court documents said the two engaged in sex acts in a public area near Lake Merritt when she was underage.

Felony charges were also filed by the DA against Oakland police officer Brian Bunton for allegedly tipping the teenager off about undercover prostitution stings in exchange for sex.

Investigators have screen shots of messages from Bunton who went by the screen name "Superman."

Court documents said Bunton encouraged acts of prostitution by informing her she "needed a better manager."

Jasmine, the daughter of a police dispatcher, on Friday slapped the city of Oakland with a $66 million lawsuit alleging both the city and its police department were negligent and exploitative in its handling of the case, court documents show.

Jasmine has accused dozens of law enforcement members from across the East Bay, including Richmond, of engaging in sexual relationships with her over the years, at times when she was a minor. 

The DA on Friday formerly charged two officers tied to the case.

Daniel Black, formerly of the Livermore police force has been charged with five counts, including engaging in prostitution, lewd public behavior and giving alcohol to a minor, according to court records.

Court documents reveal that Black picked up the young woman in a motorhome last April and took Jasmine out to dinner, telling her, "Just to be clear, I'm not paying you, but I will buy you dinner." Later, the pair engaged in oral copulation and sex.

Meanwhile, Leroy Johnson, a retired Oakland Police Department sergeant, faces a charge for failing to report child abuse after having knowledge that Jasmine was having sex with his colleagues, according to court documents.

NBC Bay Area's Kristofer Noceda and Cheryl Hurd contributed to this report.

It was just another day of work for one New Jersey bar owner — until he encountered the most wanted man in the tri-state sleeping outside his tavern.

As a massive manhunt was underway for New York City bombing suspect Ahmad Rahami, business owner Harry Bains noticed a man sleeping in the doorway of his Linden bar, Merdie’s Tavern.

Bains said the man had been asleep there for hours Monday morning and thought that he may have been a drunk who passed out. He said the man looked “tired and exhausted” as rain poured down around him.

The news of a terror suspect on the loose had been on in Merdie’s Tavern all morning. He said he had a gut feeling about the sleeping man, as the story ran over and over on television and Rahami’s image replayed in his mind.

“I was watching the news since this morning and I said, 'This guy looks so like this guy.' And I kept looping the same story three or four times,” Bains said.

Bains finally decided to follow his instincts about the man. He said he made a call to Linden police.

When officers arrived, things escalated quickly.

The officers woke Rahami. When he lifted his head they recognized him as the man in the FBI wanted poster released just hours earlier. They told him to show his hands and he pulled out a gun and fired, hitting one of them, according to police.

Rahami then allegedly walked down the street firing at random passing vehicles. Eventually police were able to take him down. He was hauled away in an ambulance, wounded by police bullets, but still alive.

Bains was nearly hit by bullets during the gunfight, but he says in the end he’s glad he followed that uneasy feeling he had.

“I'm just happy that I did it and it came to be that guy, you know?” Bains said.

But the totality of the whole situation was still settling in for Bains later on Monday.

“Why in the world? Of all the places in front of my bar? The guy is lodging in front of my bar.”

An American Airlines plane bound for Tampa, Florida, was forced to land after a warning light came on in the cockpit, the airline said Tuesday.

According to a spokesman for the Fort Worth-based airline, the Airbus A320, traveling from Phoenix, Arizona, landed safely just before midnight. None of the 146 passengers were hurt.

Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA reported passengers were told to brace for a possible impact upon landing. Passengers said there appeared to be a problem with the landing gear, but an airline spokesman would not confirm this.

Jery Penacoli, a WFLA daytime television host onboard the flight, said the flight attendants yelled "Brace! Brace! Brace!" as he and those around him said their goodbyes to each other.

Penacoli added the pilot deserved high praise.

The father of Ahmad Rahami, the suspected bomber in a series of explosions in New York City and New Jersey Saturday, says he had "no idea" his son was involved in any alleged terror plan. 

Mohammad Rahami, who owns the fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that was raided by FBI and other officials as law enforcement escalated their manhunt for the suspect, had little else to say about his son's arrest. 

Asked by NBC News if he knew his son was allegedly involved in bomb-making, Mohammad Rahami said, "No. No idea." 

[[394035901, C]]

Federal investigators interviewed Mohammad Rahami in 2014 after a neighbor heard the father scream, "You are a terrorist!" at his son, who had just allegedly punched his sister and stabbed his brother in the leg during a fight, senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News. The neighbor called police, and police told counter-terrorism officials, who questioned the father and relatives.

The father said he had made the comment out of anger and denied feeling as if his son were a terrorist or in any way radicalized, the officials told NBC News. Mohammad Rahami admitted his son was hanging out with a bad crowd, but described his friends as drinkers and thugs, the officials told NBC News. The FBI interviewed Rahami again later and the father reiterated his statements. The FBI conducted additional interviews and found no indication of terrorism. 

Ahmad Rahami spent three months in jail after the domestic dispute, but a grand jury declined to indict him and the matter was dropped. 

Meanwhile, authorities are looking to question Ahmad Rahami's wife, who was out of the country at the time of the bombings. A senior law enforcement official says investigators do not consider her travel suspicious.

Ahmad Rahami, a 28-year-old native of Afghanistan, was taken into custody Monday after a shootout on the street with police officers in Linden, New Jersey. Two officers were shot in the chaos, but are expected to make full recoveries. One left the hospital Monday night; the other was released Tuesday. Rahami, who was also wounded and remains hospitalized, has been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. 

[[394061871, C]]

No charges have been filed yet in connection with the Saturday bombings in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood that left 29 injured and the explosion at a Marine 5K race in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Federal charges were still pending, and the U.S. attorneys in New York and New Jersey will likely charge him with terrorism in the coming days, FBI officials said in Linden Monday.

[[393995361, C]]

In addition to the counts of attempted murder, Rahami is charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and second-degree possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Monday evening. Bail for Rahami in the Linden shootout was set at $5.2 million. It wasn't clear if he'd retained an attorney as of Monday night.

Authorities had been looking for Rahami in connection with bombings that rocked a crowded Manhattan neighborhood and a Jersey shore town over the weekend. A senior law enforcement official says a fingerprint collected from an unexploded device led investigators to Rahami as a suspect in the bombings at the Marine 5K race and the blast in Chelsea. 

[[393851151, C]]

Investigators said Tuesday Rahami was also linked to a cluster of pipe bombs found at a commuter rail station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, late Sunday, not far from where the suspect was later captured. A robot trying to disarm one of the bombs inadvertently detonated it, but no one was hurt. 

The blast in Chelsea injured 29 people, though all have since been released from the hospital. The explosion left twisted metal and shrapnel scattered across 23rd Street. An unexploded pressure cooker with a cellphone attached and wires protruding was found four blocks away; it was taken to a firing range, where it was safely detonated. Mayor de Blasio was set to visit the scene Tuesday as the neighborhood worked to return to normal. 

The discovery of the Manhattan devices came hours after a pipe bomb exploded in a trash bin at the Marine 5K in Seaside Park. Authorities had said they believed the device had been timed to go off as participants were running by, but the race had been late. It was canceled and no one was hurt. 

[[393939461, C]]

Old-fashioned flip phones were found on the devices in Manhattan and in Seaside Park, law enforcement officials close to the investigation told NBC 4 New York. All of the phones were purchased at the same New Jersey discount store — and were made with commonly available materials that can be bought without raising law-enforcement suspicions, authorities say.

After hedging on any potential terror angle over the weekend, Mayor de Blasio said at a news briefing Monday that there is "every reason to believe" the bombings in the city and in New Jersey were "an act of terror." 

Authorities said, though, that there was no indication of a terror cell in the area, and officials believe the suspect acted alone.

Gary Johnson, the presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, is facing backlash again, after saying "nobody got hurt" in recent attacks in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota, according to NBC News.

When CNN's "Reliable Sources'" Brian Stelter asked Johnson about his thoughts on the recent explosions and stabbings, Johnson responded, "Well, first of all, just grateful nobody got hurt."

Twenty-nine people were injured in the bombing in Manhattan, while nine people were stabbed in the Minnesota attack.

Although Johnson said he misspoke and clarified that he meant no casualties rather than no injuries, he received major backlash for the statements.

The mistake comes after Johnson was ridiculed for not knowing "what" Aleppo is.

President Obama is addressing the United Nations Refugee Summit after he and other world leaders spoke at the Opening Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. 

A trip to the bathroom early Tuesday morning likely saved a Delaware man's life when a tractor-trailer crashed into his home.

"That's where I was sittin' this morning," homeowner Bob Iwanowski told NBC10's Tim Furlong, pointing to the toilet in his New Castle home.

Iwanowski would normally have been outside smoking a cigarette at that time of morning, he said — but nature called.

He was in the bathroom when suddenly the entire house shook.

"The house went this way, this way, this way," Iwanowski told NBC10, swaying his body side to side.

It turned out the tractor-trailer had left the nearby Canada Dry plant shortly before the crash. Police said the driver told them he struck a parked car and lost control of the big rig on Iwanowski's block of Moores Lane near East 14th Street, then careened into the man's home. The home sustained serious damage, but Iwanowski wasn't injured.

"I came outside, there's the driver standing in my driveway, and I just laid into him," Iwanowski said.

The driver went to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries and was expected to be OK.

Other neighbors on the block said tractor-trailers zooming through their neighborhood are a common problem.

Authorities at the Canada Dry plant haven't returned a request for comment on the incident.

Half a million replacement Galaxy Note 7 cell phones are arriving in stores around the United States and will be available for exchange Wednesday, the company has announced. 

That represents roughly half the phones recalled due to a fire hazard that were sold in the U.S. Two-and-a-half million of the phones were recalled worldwide.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the recall last week, following a voluntary recall from Samsung. The department's chairman urged consumers to replace the phones — labeled a flight hazard by the FAA — as soon as possible due to the "serious fire hazard" presented by the product.

Dozens of people in the U.S. reported their batteries overheating, and 26 reported burns, according to the commission's website.

Consumers can either replace the phone or get a refund, and Samsung also released a stopgap software update that limits the phone's battery to 60 percent capacity, in a bid to prevent them from overheating. 

"New devices will be in stores no later than tomorrow and we will continue to take the necessary actions to ensure users are powering down and immediately exchanging recalled devices," said Samsung Electronics America President Tim Baxter in a statement.

Read more about the recall at Samsung's recall web page.

Donald Trump is again pushing back on rival Hillary Clinton's assertion that his rhetoric serves as a recruiting tool for Islamic State militants. 

Trump told a rally crowd Tuesday: "I'm being tough. How is that a recruiting tool?" 

He was speaking at High Point University in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential nominee said it's Clinton whose policies as secretary of state allowed the militant group to rise. 

He says that ISIS "happened on Hillary Clinton's watch," and added: "the rise of ISIS is Hillary Clinton's foreign policy legacy." ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State group.

At a rally later Tuesday, in Kenansville, North Carolina, Trump predictfed Clinton will copy his language and policy on national security at next week's debate.

He said Clinton "is all of a sudden going to get tough."

The Republican nominee said Tuesday that his Democratic rival will call for "strong borders" and "extreme vetting," the term he uses for screening prospective immigrants.

Clinton has called for an increase in the number of refugees the Obama administration currently allows to seek asylum in the United States from war-torn countries like Syria. She supports a strong vetting program.

Trump wants to stop the refugee program. He called it "a Trojan horse" for terrorists.

A small notebook found on suspected New York and New Jersey bomber Ahmad Rahami when he was captured praised the American al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and included "jihadist-type" writings, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation tell NBC News. 

The notebook, described by one official as "a hodge podge, a rambling, disconnected, choppy series of references to past events," also mentioned the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, where a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist killed 13 people and injured 30 others. (It did not, however, mention the Boston Marathon bombings, as some sources initially suggested.)

A senior law enforcement official initially said a note was found attached to a pressure cooker bomb left on 27th Street that did not explode. Later, though, investigators said it was a notebook, and it was found in Rahami's possession when he was captured Monday following a shootout in Linden, New Jersey. 

Two Linden police officers were wounded in the shootout with Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized citizen born in Afghanistan. They are expected to make full recoveries, and both cops have been released from the hospital.

Officer Angel Padilla, a 15-year veteran of the department, was likely saved by his bulletproof vest. Officer Peter Hammer, a 22-year veteran of the department, was struck in the head by a bullet fragment, the injury still visible and his emotions raw as he was wheeled out of University Hospital in Newark to applause from fellow officers.

"I feel like I was shot in the head. I'm just glad to be alive, glad to be home," he told NBC 4 as he went home to recuperate, accompanied by a motorcade.

Police Chief Jonathan Parham said he was proud of the officers and they in turn were proud to be Linden police officers. 

Rahami, who was shot 10 times, remains hospitalized. He has been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, and is expected to face federal charges related to bombs that exploded at the site of a Marine 5k race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and in Chelsea. 

Federal officials say surveillance video shows a man believed to be Rahami at the scene of the Chelsea explosion and also at the 27th Street scene where the second pressure cooker device was left. Additional details about the contents of the note weren't immediately available.

Rahami allegedly built four explosive devices, federal investigators said Tuesday. They allege he planted two pressure cooker bombs in New York City, the one on 23rd Street that exploded and the one on 27th Street that didn't, and a device made of three pipe bombs in a trash bin in Seaside Park. Federal investigators say Rahami also allegedly built a multi-part device that was found at a commuter rail station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, late Sunday prompting a series of transit disruptions, but it wasn't clear if the device was planted there with the intent to cause harm or tossed in an effort to get rid of evidence. 

The revelation about the "rambling" note comes as authorities investigate a potential motive in the bombings. Mayor de Blasio called the bombings an obvious "act of terror" at a news briefing Monday, but officials have said there is no indication Rahami was connected to any local terror cell. No other suspects are being sought in relation to the bombings, officials have said. 

Authorities also said that Rahami was not on any federal terror watchlist or on the NYPD's radar prior to Saturday's attack. The devices were made with commonly available materials that can be bought without raising law-enforcement suspicions, authorities say. The same kind of cellphone was used as a trigger on at least three of the devices, and the phones were all bought at the same New Jersey discount store. Fingerprints led to Rahami, officials said.

The devices weren't all the same though, federal investigators tell NBC News. The New Jersey pipe bomb contained black powder as the explosive, while the pressure cooker that went off on 23rd Street contained a mixture of ammonium nitrate (or fertilizer) and aluminum powder. It also contained ball bearings and BBs to act as shrapnel, and was placed inside a nylon bag with a zipper. 

Nearly every piece of the bombs recovered is readily available at sporting goods stores, corner convenience stores or on the internet. The instructions for building them is a mere Google search away. 

Using pressure cookers to house bombs was popularized years ago by Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by an al-Qaeda affiliate and used by the brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013. They too were followers of al-Awlaki, the American-born al-Qaida-linked cleric killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

But while pressure cookers are advocated by terrorist organizations, their use does not necessarily suggest that someone received specialized training or was under the control of a foreign group. 

"It's not that difficult to go on the internet, find out what explosive compounds are out there, where they're available — either through internet order or retail stores" and then create them on your own, said John Cohen, a top former counterterrorism official at the Department of Homeland Security. 

The fact that different materials were found in different explosives suggests that the suspected bomber likely acquired the materials online or simply used whatever was readily available, he said. 

-- Roseanne Colletti and Lori Bordonaro contributed to this report 

The Washington Post says Donald Trump used $258,000 from his charitable foundation for legal settlements involving his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida and a New York golf course.

The Post reports that in 2007, Trump used his foundation's money when his Palm Beach, Florida, club was fined $120,000 by the town for having a flagpole that was almost twice the height allowed under local rules.

As part of a settlement, Trump donated $125,000 to veterans' charities from the Trump Foundation. The foundation's money comes mainly from other donors, not Trump himself.

The Post reports that in 2010, a golfer sued when he was denied a $1 million prize for a hole-in-one in a charity tournament at Trump's course outside New York City. A $158,000 settlement also came from Trump's foundation.

The Post reported that the Trump campaign did not respond to a detailed list of questions. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC.

In a statement, the Clinton foundation cited the report as evidence Trump is "a fraud": "Trump's version of charity is taking money from others to settle his own legal issues and buy at least two pictures of himself, which experts say is a clear violation of laws governing charitable organizations."

The two men who found the backpack full of explosives near a New Jersey Transit station in Elizabeth early Monday recall the terrifying moment they opened the bag and saw metal cyclinders with wires sticking out. 

Ivan White and his friend Lee Parker were walking to the store Saturday night on South Broad Street when they spotted the backpack on top of a garbage can, they told NBC 4 New York Tuesday. Parker, who is homeless and trying to earn money for an apartment, had a job interview the next day and the backpack was just what he needed. 

They knew it felt heavy when they picked it up, but assumed there were textbooks inside — so they carried it a block away before opening it. 

That's when they found the explosives inside. 

White remembers telling Parker, "'We need to go to the police station right now.' He said, 'Why?' I said, 'That's a bomb." 

Federal investigators said Tuesday the backpack was planted there by Ahmad Khan Rahami, who's also accused in the Chelsea and Seaside Park bombings. The Elizabeth location, so close to the train station and bus depot, may have been chosen to inflict mass casualties during rush hour.

But because of White and Parker, police detonated the explosives early Monday morning without anyone getting hurt. 

"I am glad I was at the right place at the right time," said White, who volunteers at a food bank. 

White's and Parker's actions are being recognized by the Elizabeth community, and a GoFundMe page titled "Hometown Heroes" has already raised more than $1,000 from dozens of people.

"Hero — no, I wouldn't go that far. But doing the right thing, and 'everyday dude doing the right thing,' yeah, I'll take that over the hero stuff," said Parker. 

"I thank God that it was found and no one was hurt, that's the most important thing," added White. 

Parker did have the interview for the forklift operator job Monday. His prospective employer knew he was the man who found the bomb before it went off -- so perhaps that will give him an edge in landing the job and getting him back on his feet. 

Brangelina is history. 

Citing irreconcilable differences, Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from husband Brad Pitt after two years.

Jolie's lawyer Robert Offer told The Associated Press the decision was made "for the health of the family." 

In a statement released to People Magazine, Pitt also said his focus is on the "well-being of our kids."

"I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids," he said in the statement. "I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time."

The couple have six children together and married on August. 14, 2014, after a 12-year relationship. They first worked together on the 2004 set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

The stars separated on Sept. 15, according to court documents, less than a month after their two-year wedding anniversary. The documents listed the date of the filing as Monday.

In a statement released to E! News, Jolie's manager Geyer Kosinski said her focus was now on the children. "Angelina will always do what’s in the best interest to protect her children. She appreciates everyone's understanding of their need for privacy at this time."

Pitt was previously married to actress Jennifer Aniston in 2000, divorcing in 2005. This was the third marriage for Jolie, having previously been wed to Jonny Lee Miller in 1996 and Billy Bob Thornton in 2000.

The divorce was first reported by TMZ.

In 2014 the couple wed privately in the French hamlet of Correns in Provence with their children serving as ring bearers and throwing flower petals.

The pair adopted children from Cambodia, Vietnam and Ethiopia. And they sought to direct the glare of their celebrity toward other causes. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, became an outspoken voice for refugees and various causes in Africa, as well as for breast cancer treatment after undergoing a double mastectomy in 2013.

Jolie is asking for physical custody of their six children, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Viviennne.

The couple most recently worked together on the 2015 film "By The Sea," on which Jolie also served as writer and director.

A year ago, the couple talked about growing old together.

"As much as we can argue and fight, and we all have our challenges, at the end I say, 'My job is to love him,'" Jolie told People magazine.

"I'm more interested in his 50-year-old self than his 40-year-old-self,” she said. "And then you look forward to even more years together."

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Telegraph, Pitt said, "And I'm surprised how much our history – Angie's and mine – means to me. That we have this story together. That we know each other. That we watch each other getting older, through amazing moments, joys, pains."

"You know, nowadays I really can't wait to get home," he said. "More than at any time in my life, I've got purpose – real purpose. It feels like I've found my place."

Most — but not all — DNA damage from smoking fades over time, and the genetic changes occur in clear patterns, researchers reported in an American Heart Association journal Tuesday, according to NBC News.

The researchers examined 16,000 people who'd given blood samples before, and found that most damage faded by about five years after a person quit smoking. But smoking-related changes in 19 genes lasted 30 years, and may persist forever.

"Our study has found compelling evidence that smoking has a long-lasting impact on our molecular machinery, an impact that can last more than 30 years," said Roby Joehanes, of Hebrew SeniorLife and Harvard Medical School.

The researchers said those 19 genes could be used to see who is at risk of smoking-related diseases or as targets for drugs to treat cigarette smoke damage.