New York bombing suspect's family sued police for civil rights violations
UPDATE: Sept. 20, 2016 7:15 p.m. ET Updated to include local and federal charges related to the bombs and his arrest.
The search for the suspect associated with explosive devices found in New York and New Jersey led law enforcement to a fried chicken shop.
That shop in Elizabeth, New Jersey also happens to be at the center of a 2011 lawsuit filed by the family of suspect Ahmad Rahami.
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Rahami was arrested on Monday after a shootout with police. He's since been chagred with planting explosive devices in New Jersey and two such devices in New York City, one which exploded on Saturday and injured 29 people. He also faces charges related to the shootout that occured upon his arrest.
Rahami's father and other family members filed a civil lawsuit in 2011 against the city of Elizabeth as well as the city's police department, claiming officers had conspired to "harass them on basis of religion, national origin and race."
The lawsuit alleges that a resident referred to as "Dean" often harassed the family at First American Fried Chicken, which the family operated in Elizabeth. "Muslims make too much trouble in this country," Dean said to the Rahamis, according to court documents obtained by Mashable.
As news about the restaurant got out, people from all over have gone to First American Fried Chicken's Yelp page to leave xenophobic reviews.
"They have a chicken coup out back where chickens were seen wearing berkas and listening to audio version of Koran while ingesting poison before they head off to the infidel's dinner tables," one reviewer wrote.
The Rahamis claimed police acted on complaints Dean made about the restaurant, and instead of helping they also began to harass the family, telling them "this area by your restaurant is a known place for criminal activity."
Officers alleged that the city had passed an ordinance stating the 24-hour restaurant must close by 10 p.m., and the Rahamis refused. The family said they were exempt from the ordinance and that other restaurants in the area were not subject to the same rule, according to the lawsuit.
“The City Council voted to shut it down at 10 p.m.,” Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said at a news conference on Monday. “They kept getting complaints from neighbors. It was a distress to people in the neighborhood.”
Rahami's older brother got into a fight with police after they confronted the family about the restaurant's hours on June 15, 2009, according to the lawsuit.
He was then arrested, which the Rahamis say led to "severe emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, ridicule, loss of reputation and scorn" as well as economic losses.
The Rahamis' attorney was recused from the case at the start of 2015, though the lawsuit is ongoing. The attorney had not returned a request for comment at the time of writing.
"It was strictly about neighbors calling about noise," Bollwage said of the reasons police came to the restaurant. "It was never ethnicity or religion or beliefs or anything like that."
Topics New York City
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
