NYC Bombing Suspect 'Too Injured to See Lawyer'

Ahmad Rahami may have been unconscious for a week
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2016 12:13 AM CDT
Bombing Suspect 'Too Injured to See Lawyer'
Ahmad Khan Rahami is taken into custody after a shootout with police Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, in Linden, NJ.   (Nicolaus Czarnecki/Boston Herald via AP) /The Boston Herald via AP)

New York and New Jersey bombing suspect Ahmad Rahami is still in the hospital and is too badly injured to have been arrested, let alone meet a lawyer, according to officials. In a court order Monday, US Magistrate Judge Mark Falk revealed that Rahami, who was injured in a shootout with police before his capture last week, is "incapacitated and intubated" in a New Jersey hospital and has not been formally arrested yet, NBC News reports. The court order came in response to a public defender's request to meet with Rahami, who is accused of a string of bombing attacks that injured dozens of people, as well as the attempted murder of two police officers who were injured in the shootout.

Sources say Rahami was badly injured in the abdomen during the shootout. The New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says that at the request of Rahami's father and wife, it is representing him until the court allows the appointment of a public defender. The group says it wants a lawyer to check on reports that Rahami has been unconscious since he was taken into custody. "It's conspicuous whenever the government says, 'We're not going to give you a lawyer, but don't worry, you don't need one,'" ACLU lawyer Alexander Shalom tells NJ.com. (Authorities say Rahami vowed to martyr himself.)

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