with a Samsung phone attached detonated on 23rd Street in Chelsea. When NYPD investigators arrived at the scene, they noticed that this was an explosive device that America had seen before, just a few years earlier at the Boston Marathon where three lives were lost, including an 8-year-old boy.
Luckily, when the same bomb went off in the most populated city in the nation, nobody was walking close by. No lives were lost, but 31 were injured from the impact of the explosion. Shrapnel was found as far as 650 feet in all directions from where the bomb detonated, and every piece was valuable evidence in the investigation. Even the smallest pieces, like a string of nylon from the backpack that carried the device and a burned-up quarter of a barcode that identified a pack of six cellphones purchased at a Dollar General store, indicated that there were likely more explosive devices to be found.
“ We had a million pieces of evidence on 23rd Street,” Miller stated.“ It was off the top of the Samsung phone that we got the thumbprint of Ahmad Khan Rahami.”
But even after the thumbprint was lifted and NYPD had every high-intelligence resource necessary working to find the suspect and the other devices planted in Manhattan and Seaside Heights, it was a run-in with an officer in Linden, with a bum sleeping in a doorway that brought the bomber into custody.
“ In real life, with all those spies working overtime in so many countries, it’ s always a routine encounter with police that brings something like this to a close,” Miller explains.“ In the end, it’ s still the cop on the street that makes the difference.”
Miller concluded his presentation with the image of a handwritten entry from a journal found on Rahami after he was taken into custody in Linden. The notebook paper is torn and tattered with a blaring hole in the center from a bullet. Red blood stains run off the edges of the page, but the message of his handwritten words clearly marked with the ISIS stamp of ownership on the terror.
“ We have to attack at home,” the entry read.“ Not to go there and fight, but to attack here. Adnani said it clearly, attack the Kafir( non-believers) in their own backyard.”
The journal entry reminded Miller of the words that Osama bin Laden shared with him in that 1998 interview.
“ It doesn’ t matter what America does. This is not about me, one man. It’ s not about an organization. It’ s about a network, and soon the network will transcend to a movement that lives on a message and the movement will overtake you.”
Bin Laden’ s words seemed crazy to Miller then, but when the largest act of terror to hit American soil shook the nation on Sept. 11, 2001, and as terror has continued to rattled communities across the world with violent acts carried out by ISIS, Miller has been reminded of Bin Laden’ s message too many times. But no matter how strongly that message reaches those who find meaning by carrying out acts of terror on the streets of the U. S., Miller emphasized that there is no stronger way to fight that terror network than the work of law enforcement.
“ This is the key message for NAPO: Our network has to be tighter than theirs, better woven, stronger at the seams, bringing together not just the NYPD, but all the departments that are far more typical,” he stated.“ What you all do is key to strengthening our network.” d
www. njcopsmagazine. com ■ AUGUST 2017 47