Trial starts for convicted New York City bomber

ELIZABETH, N.J. – A man already serving a life sentence for a bombing in New York City is going on trial in New Jersey, where he faces attempted murder charges for allegedly firing at police officers during a gunfight preceding his arrest.

Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of Ahmad Khan Rahimi. The Afghanistan-born naturalized U.S. citizen faces attempted murder and other charges stemming from his arrest in New Jersey in September 2016.

Last year, a judge in New York sentenced Rahimi to multiple life terms after a jury convicted him of setting off a pressure cooker device, injuring 30 people. A second pressure cooker bomb was discovered a few blocks away, but it failed to go off and was removed by a robot.

Hours before the explosion in Chelsea on Sept. 17, 2016, a small pipe bomb exploded along a Marine Corps road race in Seaside Park, New Jersey. No one was injured, but the event spread fear and drew parallels to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and injured more than 260.

The bombings triggered a two-day manhunt that ended in a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey, where Rahimi was found asleep in a tavern doorway. Several police officers were injured.

At his February 2018 sentencing in New York, Rahimi told a judge he didn’t “harbour hate for anyone” and believed law enforcement began targeting him once he became a practicing Muslim. Prosecutors said Rahimi showed no remorse and had made efforts to radicalize fellow prisoners at the federal jail in New York where he had been imprisoned after his arrest.

Opening statements are expected next week.