Pa. store says it has video of Times Square suspect buying fireworks too weak for a bomb

Pa. fireworks store has video of NYC bomb suspect

NEW YORK — The suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt was caught on video at a Pennsylvania store legally buying consumer-grade fireworks that were made mostly of paper and were so weak they wouldn’t blow up a watermelon, let alone an SUV, the company president said Wednesday.

Each of the 36 M88 fireworks bought by the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, at the Matamoras showroom near the New York border has pyrotechnic powder equal in size to less than a sixth of an aspirin, according to officials of Ohio-based Phantom Fireworks.

New Yorkers are lucky that the fireworks were bought legally, because illegal pyrotechnics can be up to 1,000 times more powerful, company president Bruce Zoldan told The Associated Press.

“There’s no doubt, had he bought this on the black market, that the outcome in New York would have been totally different,” Zoldan said.

Shahzad was charged Tuesday with trying to blow up a crude gasoline and propane device inside a parked SUV amid tourists and Broadway theatergoers. He was in custody after being hauled off a Dubai-bound plane he boarded Monday night at Kennedy Airport despite being under surveillance and placed on the federal no-fly list.

“I was expecting you. Are you NYPD or FBI?” Shahzad told customs officials who came aboard the jet to arrest him, an official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

Authorities say Shahzad has admitted his role in the botched bombing plot and is cooperating with investigators, but don’t yet know whether others were involved in the plan to blow up the SUV.

U.S. officials in Washington said Wednesday they’ve been unable to verify statements that Shahzad trained at a Pakistani terror camp, according to the complaint against him, and haven’t linked him to any terror group.

Meanwhile, the official who divulged Shahzad’s comments aboard the plane told the AP that investigators now believe the video released right after the botched bombing of a man shedding his shirt near the SUV had the unintended effect of falsely reassuring the real suspect he wasn’t a target.

The unidentified man was never referred to as a suspect, but Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in his first briefing after the failed bombing that police sought to interview him. Investigators believe he is not involved with the attack, the official said. Police have not interviewed the man.

Authorities said Shahzad was not expected to appear in federal court Wednesday, and it wasn’t clear when a hearing would be held. His appearance was canceled Tuesday in part because of Shahzad’s continuing cooperation with investigators, but authorities said they had shed little light on what might have motivated him.

Until recently, his life in the U.S. appeared enviable. He had a master’s degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, a job as a budget analyst for a marketing firm in Norwalk, Conn., two children and a well-educated wife who posted his smiling picture and lovingly called him “my everything” on a social networking website.

But shortly after becoming a U.S. citizen a year ago, he gave up his job, stopped paying his mortgage and told a real estate agent to let the bank take the house because he was returning to Pakistan.

Once there, according to investigators, he traveled to the lawless Waziristan region and learned bomb making at a terrorist training camp.

In court papers, investigators said Shahzad returned to the U.S. on Feb. 3, moved into an apartment in a low-rent section of Bridgeport, and set about acquiring materials and an SUV he bought with cash in late April.

Shahzad had to show his driver’s license and fill out an application to buy the fireworks, Zoldan said. On the form, “the individual put his last name first, and his first name last, probably intentionally,” Zoldan said.

Phantom Fireworks requires proof of age and out-of-state residence to enter the store because of laws that prohibit Pennsylvanians from buying most fireworks. The store is off an interstate near the New York border.

“The M88 he used wouldn’t damage a watermelon,” Zoldan said. “Thank goodness he used that.”

Court papers said that after his arrest, Shahzad confessed to rigging the bomb and driving it into Times Square. He also acknowledged getting training in Pakistan, the filing said.

His landlord told the AP on Wednesday that Shahzad called him the night of the bombing attempt saying he had lost his apartment key and needed to be let in the building. In reality, authorities say, he had left his keys in the SUV’s ignition.

“He said he was hanging out with a friend in New York and he must have lost the key somewhere,” Stanislaw Chomiak said, adding that Shahzad lived alone.

Authorities eventually identified Shahzad through the previous owner of the SUV and put him under surveillance.

They initially planned to arrest him at his Connecticut home but lost track of him, two people familiar with the probe told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the breach in surveillance.

Emirates airlines also didn’t initially notice when Shahzad purchased a ticket that he had been placed on the government’s no-fly list, according to a law enforcement official. Emirates said in a statement Wednesday that it is in “full compliance” with U.S. passenger check-in procedures and works closely with the government to regularly update security watch lists.

The government will now require airlines to check updated no-fly lists within two hours of being notified of changes to the list, a Homeland Security official said Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the change.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano credited customs officials with recognizing Shahzad’s name on a passenger manifest and stopping the flight. Agents apprehended him on the plane.

A gun was discovered in the car Shahzad left at the airport, investigators said. Police in his former Connecticut town said he bought a Kel-Tec rifle legally from a dealer after passing a criminal background check and a 14-day waiting period.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the Times Square car bomb plot, but U.S. officials said they are still investigating. In Pakistan, authorities detained several people, although the FBI said it had no confirmation that those arrests were relevant to the case.

Rubinkam reported from Allentown, Pa. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Tom Hays, Larry Neumeister and David B. Caruso in New York; John Christoffersen in Bridgeport and Shelton, Conn.; Larry Margasak, Eileen Sullivan, Pete Yost, Matt Apuzzo and Julie Pace in Washington; Chris Brummitt in Islamabad; Adam Schreck in Dubai; Eric Tucker in Shelton; Dave Collins, Stephen Singer, Pat Eaton-Robb and Stephanie Reitz in Hartford, Conn.; and the AP News Research Center in New York.