Federal officials have charged the suspect in Saturday's bombing in Manhattan with planting bombs in both New York City and New Jersey.

According to the criminal complaint, Ahmad Khan Rahami faces charges of use of weapons of mass destruction, bombing a place of public use, destruction of property by means of fire or explosive, and use of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The news comes hours after law enforcement sources say the suspect's father alerted authorities about his son's potentially destructive path.

Law enforcement sources say two years ago, Rahami's father told police his son was a terrorist, which put him on federal agents' radar. 

Sources say the father later recanted the statement to the FBI.

According to law enforcement sources, the FBI stopped looking into Rahami after full background and database checks yielded no evidence.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the father says he contacted authorities because his son was causing trouble and not because of terrorist motivations.

  • Mohammad Rahami, suspect's father: They checked that almost two months. They said he's OK, he's clear, he's not a terrorist. I said OK. Now they say he's a terrorist. I say OK.
  • Q: Why did you call the FBI two years ago?
  • Mohammad Rahami: He doing bad.
  • Q: What did he do bad?
  • Mohammad Rahami: He stabbed my son, he hit my wife, and I put him to jail.

New Jersey State Police got into a shootout Monday with the 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen after receiving a tip about a man sleeping in a bar doorway in Linden.

Two officers were shot. Both have been released from the hospital.

Rahami remains hospitalized. He faces five counts of attempted murder of a police officer.

Surveillance video allegedly shows Rahami on 23rd Street in Chelsea Saturday night, just hours before the explosion that injured 29 people.

The FBI says he is also directly linked to an explosion earlier in the day in Seaside Park, N.J.

Officials say they believe Rahami acted alone. 

Officials are trying to understand how and why Rahami, who emigrated to the U.S. as a child, allegedly became radicalized.

A federal complaint filed Tuesday says that when he was captured by police in New Jersey, he had a handwritten journal in which he praised terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al Qaeda figure killed in a U.S. drone strike. 

But there are still plenty of other questions about Rahami that law enforcement needs answers to, including whether anyone helped him, or even knew he was plotting an attack.

"We need to speak to everybody involved. Anybody in his circle, we need to speak to," said Police Commissioner James O'Neill. "This is all an important part to figure out why he did this."

One focus is on trips he took to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Faiza Patel, the co-director of the national security program at NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, says it is not easy for the FBI to pinpoint people who are becoming so radicalized that they will commit violence.

"This is not the only case where that has happened," Patel said. "The older Tsarnaev brother who carried out the Boston marathon bombing also investigated by the FBI."

She says along with investigations, authorities must connect with members of various communities to find out who the terrorists are.