New York City shook this past Saturday when a bomb exploded on 23rd Street in Chelsea. The bomb, found after a dumpster exploded out of nowhere around 8:30 PM, was placed across the street from a residence for the blind. The explosion happened just hours after a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can in Seaside Park, New Jersey, as a Marine Corps charity run was about to begin. No one was injured from the explosion in Seaside Park, but there were 29 injured people from the Chelsea explosion and the charity run was cancelled. Officials were not quick to assume the two explosions were linked, however, by Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, officials named Ahmad Khan Rahami as their prime suspect after identifying his fingerprints from an unexploded device. The 28-year-old male was wanted for not only the Chelsea and Seaside bombings, but also the suspicious package found on 27th Street Saturday night, as well as a package found in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that contained three pipe bombs and two smaller devices. The device found on 27th Street was identified as a pressure cooker with attached wires and a cell phone. Rahami was finally taken into custody Monday afternoon around 12:30 in Linden, New Jersey after a shootout with police, that ended with Rahami being taken into an ambulance on a stretcher with a bloody shoulder. He was found sleeping in the doorway of a bar by the owner who recognized him from news stories.

Not even a week after the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attack on the Twin Towers, New York experienced another act of what is now being called a terrorist attack. The attacks also come as New York plans to host the United Nations General Assembly this week. The events in New York and New Jersey caused New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains to be held in Penn Station for a period of time, causing a big disrupt in people's transportation and travel schedules.

A news article from The Washington Post also points out that the pressure cooker type bomb was similar to the one that was used in the Boston Marathon bombing back in 2013.

Living in Manhattan this weekend meant constant Emergency Alerts at early hours and being afraid to be out on the streets. While it is possible for something like this to happen at any time, it's a much different experience actually being so close to it. As the events were unfolding in Chelsea, I found myself having dinner with my roommate in the East Village, about 50 blocks from my dorm and only 20 blocks from Chelsea, which was between us and home. Something like this does hit close to home, now being a resident here, as well as hearing the news of the New Jersey events, since that's where I'm from.

Hopefully this was the extent of this so-called "terrorist attack" that ended with no deaths after many attempts by Rahami.