Abel Andrew was on his way to work Monday morning when he inadvertently witnessed the takedown of Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old suspect wanted in connection with the bombings that rocked New York and New Jersey over the weekend.
“I’m literally about 500 feet away from where my job is and I had to pull over because there are about 20 cop cars just flying past us,” Andrew told CTV News Channel from Linden, N.J.
Unable to cross the street, Andrew got out of his car and rounded a corner.
“I just walked over there because there was no tape or nothing holding us back from going.”
Andrew immediately saw Rahami writhing on the ground.
“It looks like the guy was trying to get up… and he just looked dazed. And he was out -- he was already shot -- and he was looking to his right, looking to his left … That’s when the police told everybody they had to get back. ”
Like many in the area, Andrew had already seen photos of Rahami in the media.
“As he looked towards us… we said, ‘Oh, snap! Wait a minute. This is the guy! The suspect they were looking for!”
Ten to 15 minutes later, Andrew says an ambulance arrived. He posted a video of Rahami being loaded onto the vehicle on Instagram.
“It’s real quiet,” Andrew said of the neighbourhood where the drama unfolded. “You really don’t see stuff like this happen at all… I live fairly close. So it’s like, wow -- that literally happened down the street. I could have literally walked down the street and got shot by a stray bullet.”
