Shahzad Did Dry Run for Times Square Attack

Times Square suspect bought gun, weak fireworks in months before attack
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 6, 2010 6:10 AM CDT
Updated May 6, 2010 7:11 AM CDT
Shahzad Did Dry Run for Times Square Attack
Faisal Shahzad passed a background check and bought a gun from the Valley Firearms gun shop in Shelton, Conn.    (AP Photo/Douglas Healey)

Faisal Shahzad did a practice run to Times Square in the SUV he used for last weekend's attempted car bombing, according to law enforcement officials unraveling the terror suspect's movements. Shahzad drove to Times Square in the SUV three days before the attack and returned two days later to drop off an Isuzu he planned to use as a getaway car, officials tell the AP. After leaving the explosives-laden SUV behind on Saturday night, he had to get away on public transport because he'd left the Isuzu keys behind in his car bomb.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly says Shahzad bought a gun legally in Connecticut in March, suggesting that his plan was already in motion by then. Execs at a fireworks store in Pennsylvania say store video shows Shahzad buying eight boxes of fireworks in March, but they were too weak to have caused destruction. "The M88 he used wouldn't damage a watermelon. Thank goodness he used that," said the president of Phantom Fireworks.
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