Akayed Ullah, 31, of Brooklyn, New York, and a lawful permanent
resident of Bangladesh, was convicted by a federal jury of offenses
related to the detonation and attempted detonation of a bomb in a subway
station near the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City
on Dec. 11, 2017. According to court documents, on Dec. 11, 2017, at
approximately 7:20 a.m., Ullah detonated a pipe bomb strapped to his
chest in a subway station near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in
midtown Manhattan. Shortly after the blast, first responders located
Ullah lying on the ground in the station where he had detonated the
improvised explosive device, and he was taken into custody. Surveillance
footage captured Ullah walking through the station immediately prior to
the explosion and then detonating the bomb.
“Ullah constructed a pipe bomb and detonated it in a mass transit hub
in the heart of New York City to harm and terrorize as many people as
possible - and he admitted that he did it on behalf of ISIS," said
Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the Justice Department’s
National Security Division. “This case reminds us that the threat of
ISIS-inspired terrorism remains real. This sentence holds Ullah
accountable, as he will spend the rest of his life in federal prison for
his crimes. I want to thank all of the agents, analysts, and
prosecutors whose outstanding work made this result possible.”
“Akayed Ullah, previously convicted in a New York federal court of
carrying out a lone-wolf bombing attack on behalf of ISIS at the Port
Authority Bus Terminal, a bustling transit artery in New York City,
admittedly intended to murder as many innocent Americans as possible,”
said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss for the Southern District of New York.
“Ullah’s motive was clear and unambiguous: a deeply held ideological
hatred for America. Ironically, Ullah’s actions resulted only in
reaffirming the greatness of America by displaying the fairness and
impartiality for which our justice system stands. Ullah received a
speedy, fair, public trial, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.
Akayed Ullah’s message of hatred clearly backfired; his just sentence of
life in prison only exemplifies that cowardly acts of terrorism will be
met with law enforcement’s unwavering resolve to protect our core
values of freedom and democracy.”
“The defendant sought to attack innocent Americans who were going
about their daily lives," said Acting Assistant Director Patrick Reddan
for Counterterrorism at the FBI. “He will now spend the rest of his life
in prison, where he will not be in a position to attempt another
attack. While the terrorism threat continues to evolve in this country,
groups like ISIS remain committed to attacking America, and the FBI will
continue to work with our JTTF partners across the country in
our commitment to track down and disrupt terrorists who seek to harm our
homeland.”
According to court documents and the evidence presented at trial,
Ullah began radicalizing in approximately 2014. Ullah disagreed with
U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and began seeking out online
materials promoting radical Islamic terrorist ideology. In particular,
Ullah was inspired by ISIS propaganda, including a video in which ISIS
instructed supporters to carry out attacks in their homelands if they
were unable to travel overseas to join ISIS. Ullah began researching how
to build a bomb about a year prior to his attack. He built his pipe
bomb in the weeks leading up to the attack at his Brooklyn apartment.
Following the attack on Dec. 11, 2017, law enforcement located
remnants of the pipe bomb on Ullah’s person and strewn across the attack
site in the subway station. Law enforcement found, among other things:
(i) a nine-volt battery inside Ullah’s pants pocket, which he used as
the power source for triggering the bomb; (ii) wires connected to the
battery and running underneath Ullah’s jacket; (iii) plastic zip ties
underneath Ullah’s jacket, which he used to strap the bomb to his body;
(iv) several fragments of a metal pipe, which Ullah had filled with an
explosive substance that he made using sugar and match heads;
(v) fragments of Christmas tree lightbulbs attached to wires, which
Ullah used to ignite the explosion; and (vi) numerous metal screws.
Ullah filled his pipe bomb with dozens of metal screws to function as
shrapnel, for the purpose of causing maximum damage.
On the morning of the attack, shortly before detonating his bomb,
Ullah posted a statement on Facebook referring to the then-President of
the United States, stating: “Trump you failed to protect your nation.”
Ullah also posted an ISIS slogan so that ISIS would know that he had
carried out the attack on behalf of the foreign terrorist organization.
After Ullah was taken into custody following the attack, he waived
his Miranda rights and spoke to law enforcement. Ullah was inspired by
ISIS to carry out the Dec. 11 attack, and stated, among other things, “I
did it for the Islamic State.” He also said that he chose a busy
weekday morning for the attack in order to “terrorize as many people as
possible.” One commuter who was inside the station when Ullah detonated
the pipe bomb suffered a shrapnel wound to his leg, and two other
victims partly lost their hearing as a result of the blast. Ullah’s
attack caused the Port Authority subway station and bus terminal to shut
down temporarily, disrupting the lives of commuters across the New York
City area.
After the attack, law enforcement searched Ullah’s apartment pursuant
to a search warrant. Agents recovered, among other things, Ullah’s
passport, which contained the handwritten statement, “O AMERICA, DIE IN
YOUR RAGE.” Less than two weeks before carrying out the attack, Ullah
had watched and drawn inspiration from a particular ISIS propaganda
video that proclaimed, “die in your rage, America,” with an image of the
U.S. Capitol in the background.
Later in December 2017, while in custody at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center on the charges in this case, Ullah began chanting
“more is coming” at a correctional officer, and then told the officer:
“You started this war, we will finish it. More is coming, you’ll see.”
Assistant Attorney General Demers and Acting U.S. Attorney Strauss
praised the outstanding investigative efforts of the FBI, the New York
Police Department (NYPD) and Port Authority Police Department (PAPD).
Ullah’s conviction is the result of the close cooperative efforts of the
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the
Justice Department’s National Security Division, and the FBI’s New York
Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists of investigators and analysts
from the FBI, the NYPD, and over 50 other federal, state, and local
agencies.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rebekah Donaleski and George D. Turner for
the Southern District of New York prosecuted this case with assistance
from Trial Attorneys Jason Denney and Felice Viti of the National
Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
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