Akayed Ullah, the 27-year-old identified by police as the suspected New York bomber, was on Monday being treated at a hospital for burns to his hands and abdomen after the crude pipe bomb that was strapped to his body exploded.
Three other people sustained non-life threatening injuries in the attack, police said.
Ullah is a Bangladeshi national who in 2011 emigrated to the US with an F-43 family visa, meaning a family member living in the US would have sponsored his application, the White House said.
He had a taxi and limousine license dated from 2012 until its expiration in 2015, the city’s licensing commission said.
However, little else has been confirmed about the suspect since a news conference held by city officials on Monday morning.
Authorities are treating the bombing as “an attempted terror attack,” New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said.
New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the suspect “did make statements,” but declined to elaborate when asked if Ullah was connected to the Islamic State group.
The police department declined a request to provide more information on the suspect.
Public records show that Ullah lived in Brooklyn and police were investigating an apartment building in the Kensington neighborhood early on Monday afternoon.
An officer wearing a bomb squad vest and a helmet and carrying bolt cutters entered the building along with a man wearing a FBI jacket and other police officers.
Ullah’s immigration status was seized on by the White House during a news briefing. The administration of US President Donald Trump, with its hardline stance on immigration, has advocated a crackdown on certain visas classes.
“We must move to a merit-based system of immigration,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
“I think that the president is certainly concerned that Congress, particularly Democrats, have failed to take action in some places where we feel we could have prevented this,” she added.
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