Officer testifies in New Jersey trial of convicted bomber

ELIZABETH, N.J. – Opening statements got underway in the New Jersey trial of a man already serving a life sentence for a bombing in New York City.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi, an Afghanistan-born naturalized U.S. citizen, faces attempted murder and other charges for allegedly firing at police officers during a gunfight preceding his 2016 arrest.

After Tuesday’s openings, the jury in state Superior Court heard testimony from the retired Linden police officer who Rahimi is accused of shooting, and from the owner of the tavern who witnessed it.

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.

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.