NYC subway terror bombing suspect indicted
— -- A federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment Wednesday against Akayed Ullah, who allegedly detonated a pipe bomb Dec. 11 beneath the Port Authority bus terminal.
The charges include use of a weapon of mass destruction, providing material support to ISIS and bombing a place of public use. Together the charges carry a maximum of life in prison. Ullah is not death-sentence eligible because no one died in the attack.
"Ullah detonated and attempted to detonate an IED in the vicinity of the Port Authority Bus Terminal...then in use by subway cars and buses that were carrying passengers and employees at the time," the indictment said.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Manhattan federal court.
The pipe bomb went off in a passageway beneath 42nd Street and significantly injured only Ullah, who police said was found with components of the device on his body and taped inside his jacket.
After his arrest and while detained at Bellevue Hospital, Ullah told the FBI, "I did it for the Islamic State," federal prosecutors said.
Ullah also told investigators he built the device in his Brooklyn residence using a metal pipe, wires, Christmas tree lights and a nine volt battery, prosecutors said.
Inside the residence, charging documents said, investigators found a passport with a handwritten notation: "O America, die in your rage."
Metal screws were packed into the pipe but investigators said the device was improperly constructed and therefore did not do the damage Ullah allegedly intended.
"In selecting this time and place, Ullah's alleged purpose in the Port Authority bombing was painfully clear: to inflict as much damage as possible and to strike fear into the hearts of New Yorkers in the name of ISIS," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
