'There's a bunch of wires' - Chilling cop chatter behind backpack bomb discovery

ELIZABETH -- When two men walked into the Elizabeth police station the night of Sept. 18 to say they had found a backpack of bombs, it launched a night-long chain of events that set New Jersey's fourth-largest city on edge. 

City police and the Union County Bomb Squad rushed to the city's train station to find five improvised explosive devices in the bag near Willy's Place, a Salvadoran restaurant. 

As authorities examined the backpack with a bomb robot around 12:40 a.m., one of the devices accidentally detonated. Officials moved back reporters and bystanders, fearing the other four bombs might also explode.

Police captured the man wanted for planting the backpack, Elizabeth resident Ahmad Khan Rahimi, later that day, after a massive manhunt and a shootout in Linden that seriously wounded two officers. 

Rahimi, 28, now faces federal charges related to planting the bag of explosives, as well as other bombs in Seaside Park and New York City. He also has pleaded not guilty to five state charges of attempted murder stemming from the shootout with police that led to his arrest. 

Audio recordings of law enforcement communications from the night the backpack was found, obtained by NJ Advance Media through an Open Public Records Act request, offer a behind-the-scenes look at the action. 

Below is a timeline of Elizabeth police officers' interactions with each other and with other authorities from evening of Sept. 18 until early on Sept. 19.

Not all of the audio recordings include the speakers' names, and some of the names that are provided are not fully audible. The transcriptions of each recording have been slightly condensed. 

8:42 p.m.: "Hi, it's Sgt. Kearns. Can you send a unit in to meet these gentlemen here? They said they think they found a bomb in a backpack."

"A bomb?"

"Yes."

"Do they know where the backpack is?"

"Yeah, they're going to bring the police to it."

"Alright, no problem, I'll have somebody in right away."

8:52 p.m.: "(Inaudible) to headquarters."

"Go ahead."

"Alright, we're gonna treat this as a real threat. I have Union County Bomb Squad coming out."

"Received."

8:55 p.m.: "Transit Police." 

"Hey, how are you doing. It's Sgt. Buckley from Elizabeth."

"Hey, what's going on."

"We have a suspicious package underneath the arch, which is a train bridge. It's at North Broad and East Broad Street. As soon as you leave the Elizabeth train station, it's just northbound of that train station. So I don't know if you guys..."

"The arch?"

"Yeah."

"Are you guys checking that out, or..."

"Do you know whose bridge that is?"

"I don't know."

"Is it abandoned?"

"No, I think trains use it. But I'll check again and let you know."

"Okay, I have an officer in Elizabeth. I'll send him right over." 

9:09 p.m.: "Transit Police."

"How are you doing, this is Garrett from the Elizabeth Police Department. Can you transfer me to the guys that you do the cameras with?"

"Uhh, that's all of our guys. What are you looking for, exactly?"

"If you guys have any cameras on the side of the track or maybe anywhere in the area of East Broad, where I believe they're sending a couple of your units over there?"

"Unfortunately, we don't have any cameras over in that area." 

"Alright, thank you." 

10:11 p.m.: "All units: If you can see the package, you are to try and cover and not be near it. Also, no one, no one, is to come within 300 feet of this package."

12:40 a.m.: "You had a huge explosion somewhere on North Broad Street."

12:41 a.m.: "Do you want to call a roll call and just have the officers check in on the perimeter? To make sure everybody's okay?"

12:54 p.m.: "We're gonna have to move everybody back another block from where we have the perimeter set up now. I'm gonna get you another radio car, too, because we're gonna have to shut down Union and East Jersey, West Jersey. 

1:02 a.m.: "They're gonna have to close 7-Eleven. Have them do whatever they gotta do to shut it down and get those people out of there until further notice."

2:20 a.m.: "We can't see 'em, Lieutenant, but there was a couple county guys up there, checking garbage cans." 

2:44 a.m.: "Hey, Lou. I got an entourage of FBI. What's the best way to bring them in?"

"Morris Avenue. Straight down Morris Avenue." 

3:23 a.m.: "For all units around the scene on Broad Street, if you can see the active scene, you are too close. That's from the bomb squad." 

5:02 a.m.: "Transit PD's telling me that the FBI gave the okay to open up the train station. Can you confirm that and if we're just letting pedestrians in or we can open up the street?" 

"Standby."

5:04 a.m.: "Yeah, Transit supervisor here. They got the okay to open up the trains, to resume as of 5 a.m."

"Okay, and then, next question: Can we have vehicle traffic coming down West Grand from Broad? Or no?"

"I'll get right back to you." 

5:07 a.m.: "We're gonna wait until they do a sweep and see how much we're gonna keep closed here." 

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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