Chelsea Bomber Sentenced To Life In Prison

CHELSEA, NY — The so-called Chelsea bomber was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Ahmad Rahimi will spend the rest of his life in federal prison after detonating a bomb in Manhattan on a Saturday night in 2016.

In October, a grand jury found Rahimi guilty of eight counts related to the terrorist act. Rahimi was facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison after the guilty verdict.

"Rahimi attempted to wreak havoc in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. He failed," NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill said. "Committing terrorism may seem, from the darkest places of the internet and espoused in propaganda, as a higher calling. It is not. Today’s sentencing—of life in prison—should be the strongest deterrent to future acts of terror."

In total, Rahimi was sentenced to two life terms in prison.

The 29-year-old, who investigators said was inspired by ISIS and al Qaeda, planted two pressure cooker bombs in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on Sept. 17, 2016. The first bomb, planted in a dumpster on 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, detonated at about 8:30 p.m., causing injuries to more than 30 people. No one was killed in the explosion.

A pedestrian found a second bomb that Rahimi had planted on 27th Street, which did not detonate.

Investigators later learned that Rahimi had built and planted an additional explosive device along the route of a charity 5K race in New Jersey. That bomb detonated but did not injure anyone.

Rahimi was arrested in New Jersey after a 50-hour manhunt ended in a shootout. He was shot several times by police but was not killed.

Image credit: AP Photo/Mel Evans, File. Image caption: In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York's Chelsea neighborhood in September, sits in court in Elizabeth, N.J.