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Who Is The Times Square Car Bomb Suspect?
Former Neighbors Of Accused Times Square Bomber The Married Father Of Two Kept To Himself, Claimed To Work On Wall StreetFaisal Shahzad gave the impression of a quiet family man, raising two small children with his wife in Shelton, Conn. and telling neighbors he worked on Wall Street. Despite becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen on April 17, 2009, Shahzad spent much of the past year outside of the country, mostly in Pakistan where his wife, Huma Mian, is currently living. Shahzad, along with his wife and children, a boy and a girl, lived for about three years in a two-story Colonial-style three-bedroom home in Shelton, Conn., former neighbors said. Neighbors offered diverging descriptions of Shahzad but agreed that he kept to himself. One, Brenda Thurman, said Shahzad had told her husband he worked on Wall Street, while another neighbor, Audrey Sokol, said she thought he worked in nearby Norwalk. "He was a little bit strange," she said. "He didn't like to come out during the day." Sokol, a teacher who lives next door to Shahzad's old house, said that he would wave and say hello and that he seemed normal to her. Shahzad and his family previously lived in Bridgeport, Conn., in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multi-family homes. Authorities removed filled plastic bags from that house overnight and a bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street. He became a citizen in Hartford, Conn., and passed all the criminal and national security background checks required for citizenship, officials said. The officials familiar with the inquiry say investigators plan to go through his citizenship application line by line to see if he lied about anything. Court records show that the suspect in the failed Times Square bombing defaulted on a $200,000 mortgage on his Connecticut home and that the property is in foreclosure. Records obtained by The Associated Press show that Chase Home Finance LLC sued Shahzad in September to foreclose on the home in Shelton. The foreclosure records show Shahzad took out the mortgage on the property in 2004, and he co-owned the home with a woman named Huma Mian. The foreclosure case is pending in Milford Superior Court. On June 2, 2009, Shahzad departed the U.S. for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In July, he reportedly traveled to Pakistan and is believed to have visited Peshawar, a city known as a gateway to the militant-occupied tribal regions of the country, according to MSNBC. Shahzad last entered the U.S. on Feb. 3, 2010 after a five-month visit to Pakistan. From his hometown paper, the Connecticut Post: BRIDGEPORT -- Faisal Shahzad, the man charged in the attempted bombing in Times Square, is a 2001 graduate of the University of Bridgeport and had lived at multiple addresses in Fairfield and New Haven counties. Shahzad, who will appear in federal court in Manhattan Tuesday, graduated from U.B. His parents had traveled to Bridgeport from Pakistan to attend his graduation. When Shahzad's name was called, his father proudly whispered, "that's him." Michael Spitzer, the University of Bridgeport's provost and vice president for academic affairs, said Shahzad earned a bachelor of science in computer applications and information systems in the fall of 2000. He returned to U.B. and graduated with an MBA in the summer of 2005. Records also show that Shahzad has lived in the region since May 2001 including addresses in Milford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and Shelton. In Shelton, Shahzad bought a house at 119 Long Hill Ave. in 2004 and took out a $218,400 mortgage from Chase Home Finance. In February 2009, he obtained a $65,000 home equity loan from Wachovia bank and seven months both banks began foreclosure. Meanwhile, police and FBI are continuing to search a 202-204 Sheridan Street home in Bridgeport where Shahzad lived. The search started around 2 a.m. , said agent Kimberly Mertz, who wouldn't answer questions about the search. Authorities removed several filled plastic bags from the house overnight. A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street. Investigators removed a fireworks box among other evidence at the Bridgeport property. The box is labeled "Silver Salutes." Those fireworks are similar to the M88s authorities say were found among containers of gasoline and other materials left in an SUV meant to explode in New York City on Saturday night. Shahzad's neighbors in Bridgeport say federal agents arrived late Monday to his triple-decker with the name "F Shahzad" on the mailbox. Men in white suits were seen entering and leaving the home that may have been home to Shahzad, a former Shelton resident. A "For Rent" sign can be seen posted on the home, which according to the tax assessor's Web site is owned by Chomiak Stanislaw. From another CBS story: Sources told CBS News on Tuesday morning that multiple people have been taken into custody for questioning in Pakistan in connection with the bomb plot. Authorities are not saying who the potential suspects are or where they are being held, but they say there were raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in different locations. It's believed between four and eight people are being held, and there are reports that some of them may be related to the suspect arrested overnight in New York. Posted by: 2010-05-04 |
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