The man captured by police on Monday after a shootout, who was tied to a series of terror attacks around New York City, was a fickle lover, a bad father, and a critic of American culture, according to an anonymous woman who told Fox News she was his high school sweetheart and the mother of his child.
“He would often speak of Western culture and how it was different back home,” said the woman, whom Fox News referred to as Maria. “How there weren’t homosexuals in Afghanistan.” Maria recalled meeting Ahmad Khan Rahami at Edison High School, where he was known as the class clown.
She mentioned one particular instance where Rahami’s dislike of the U.S. military became fully manifest. “One time, he was watching TV with my daughter and a woman in a [military] uniform came on and he told [their daughter], ‘That’s the bad person,'” Maria said.
While Maria recalled Rahami constantly criticizing American culture, she said she was surprised he would actually strike out against Americans. “I never thought he would do something like this,” Maria said through tears, adding, “I think he was brainwashed.”
The woman recalled that Rahami would travel back to Afghanistan to see family, remaining out there for weeks or even months. Right before their daughter was born, Maria remembered Rahami being stuck in Afghanistan because Afghan authorities had confiscated his passport.
The last time the woman remembered Rahami visiting Afghanistan was nine years ago, and at that time he brought back a wife and another child, she said.
Maria, who is 26 years old, would have only been 17 at this time. Rahami, who is 28 years old, would have only been 19. When asked about the breakup, the woman cut her interview short, saying she did not want to speak to a reporter. But she did insist that she didn’t want Rahami near their daughter.
“I don’t want him to see my daughter,” Maria declared. “If he loved her, he would have paid child support. My greatest fear is that he would try to take my daughter.”
She said she had not seen Rahami in two years.
Maria spoke with Fox News thanks to her grandmother, who called the woman for a reporter who produced his press credential at the grandmother’s home in Elizabeth. This granted the anonymous woman a degree of credibility in giving these remarks.
Others have spoken about the Rahami family with much less credibility. After the news of Rahami being a suspect in the bombings became public knowledge, Yelp users took to the social media platform to blast the restaurant owned by Rahami’s family. One of the reviewers attacked “Filthy Mohammedan Savages” connected with First America Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, NJ.
As with any figure who takes the media by storm, many will claim a connection in order to opine on the events in question. Maria’s comments are hard to confirm, but as more news comes out, it will become clear whether the woman who spoke with Fox News really is his former lover and the mother of his daughter.
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