In the morning of September 17, 2016, in Ocean County, New Jersey, the Seaside Semper Five, a 5K run event, was expected to draw as many as 3,000 people, with many of them being veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

[1] A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity stated that the explosion "appeared to have come from a construction toolbox" in front of a building, and photographs of the area reportedly showed a twisted, crumpled black metal box.

[20] Two state troopers arrived and discovered the pressure cooker bomb concealed in a plastic bag and connected with dark wiring to a mobile phone.

[23] White and Parker looked into the backpack, discovered that the item contained wires and a pipe, and called 9-1-1 at around 8:45 p.m.[26][29][30] The men, who were not held as suspects,[24][26] were hailed as heroes in Elizabeth;[29][30] a GoFundMe campaign in their name raised over $16,000 in donations.

[29][30] The investigation was soon turned over to the New Jersey Transit Police Department and the FBI, two county robots (Union and Essex) confirmed the devices were pipe bombs.

[27][33] Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said that it was unclear whether the train station was a specific target, or whether the bombs were dumped by someone looking to quickly get rid of them.

[1][35] Investigators did not immediately find evidence of a terrorism link,[1][16] initially leaving open the possibility of arson or vandalism at the time.

[24][37] Three different designs had been used amongst the four explosive devices, with the Department of Homeland Security finding that the bomb-maker followed guidelines featured in Inspire, an online magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

[46] It was later confirmed that the pair were security officers for an airline in the Middle East who, despite their profession, did not register that the device was a bomb and focused only on the chance to take the luggage for themselves – which they soon threw in the garbage at their hotel, rather than contact authorities, when they saw news reports about the hunt for Rahami.

[47] Late on September 18, the day after the Manhattan explosion, the FBI announced that five men, who were later found to be relatives of Rahimi, had been detained in connection with the investigation.

[50][51][38] On September 20, investigators said that when Rahimi was arrested, he had a notebook in his possession in which he had written about Anwar al-Awlaki, the Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, the spokesperson and a senior leader of ISIL.

[65] From 2010 to 2012, he attended Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, majoring in criminal justice with alleged aspirations of a future in law enforcement.

Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said the longstanding issues were caused by a series of complaints from neighbors, who reported noise and large crowds gathering at the restaurant late at night.

[64] In July 2016, Rahimi passed the required background check and legally purchased the Glock 9 mm handgun he used in the subsequent shootout, from a licensed dealer in Salem, Virginia.

In August 2014, he, at that time living in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, was charged with aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon in Union County.

[64][65][74] A "high-ranking law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation" said Rahimi had spent two additional days in jail, one in February 2012 for allegedly violating a restraining order, and another in October 2008 for failure to pay traffic tickets.

One reason cited was that Mohammad had stated that he was merely angry over the August domestic incident when he reported his son, so he had denied his previous statement.

[13][74] In an interview with The New York Times, Mohammad claimed that he had seen his son watching videos made by al-Qaeda and the Taliban and asked him to stop.

[75][76] Rahimi, reportedly, went back to Afghanistan several times (including for an extended period starting in 2012), and "showed signs of radicalization" afterwards.

At Quetta, which is home to a large population of Afghan immigrants and some Taliban members-in-exile,[79] he was in an arranged marriage with a Pakistani woman,[42][59] believed to be his cousin,[66][68] in July 2011,[78] and had a son with her in 2014.

[53] In Kuchlak, Rahimi attended an Afghan-run Naqshbandi religious seminary closely associated with the Taliban movement, where he took lectures in Islamic education for three weeks.

[38] According to a childhood friend, Rahimi grew a beard, started wearing more religious clothing following his trips to Afghanistan, and began praying in the back of his family's restaurant.

[84] After stopping the five men on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, FBI agents and Elizabeth police searched Rahimi's home in the early morning of September 18.

[47][89] Rahimi disregarded the order,[89] retrieved a Glock 9mm handgun,[73] and shot Officer Padilla in the abdomen, striking his bulletproof vest.

[55][96] On September 26, Rahimi's father and wife retained the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defend him on the federal charges.

On the night of September 19, Rahimi was charged in New Jersey Superior Court with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer in relation to the shootout in Linden.

[38][56][72][116] On October 13, after a delay caused by his ongoing recovery from gunshot wounds, Rahimi appeared, by teleconference, in New Jersey State Court to plead not guilty to the charges against him.

[118] On November 10, ahead of hearings in his case, Rahimi was moved from the medical unit at Trenton State Prison to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

Governor Cuomo released a statement following the Manhattan bombing, saying, "We are closely monitoring the situation and urge New Yorkers to, as always, remain calm and vigilant.

[6] Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S., released a statement saying the Afghan government condemned the bombings and promising the country's cooperation with the investigation.