Ahmad Khan Rahami high school classmate recalls bomb suspect as ‘funny’; calls allegations ‘shocking’

The FBI put millions of people on alert Monday when it released a photograph of Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man suspected in connection with the weekend bombings in New Jersey and New York. But for some, the face of America’s most wanted man was already eerily familiar.

“I went to high school with the alleged bomber,” tweeted Chris Konya, shortly after the FBI began circulating Rahami’s image on a poster that stated he “should be considered armed and dangerous.”

Konya followed up his first tweet with a second that featured a yearbook photo of Rahami taken during his senior year at Edison High School in New Jersey in 2007.

Konya, a radio host in Rochester, N.Y., later told local ABC affiliate WHAM that he remembered Rahami — who was taken into custody after a shootout with police Monday — as quiet and mild-mannered.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “We remember him being well-dressed, and when he did talk, it was not abrasive, it was funny.”

Konya recalled that Rahami seemed to disappear after graduation — around the time he is reported to have moved to Afghanistan.

“It’s a complete mystery what happened to Ahmad between graduating in the summer of 2007 and last weekend,” he said. Still, Konya said, he wouldn’t have expected to see his former classmate’s face on an FBI Most Wanted poster.

“It has only been nine or 10 years, so the time span from going from blending into being the most wanted man in America in less than 10 years is pretty shocking to me,” he said.

Konya did not immediately respond to a Yahoo News request for comment, nor did administrators at Edison High School.

Others closer to Rahami during the years after he graduated also spoke out Monday, saying they had observed changes in his personality in recent years.

“It was nothing but good vibes,” 27-year-old Flee Jones, who grew up with Rahami and remembers playing basketball with him in the park as kids, said in an interview with the New York Times. Jones, now a rapper, said he’s a regular at the fried chicken restaurant owned by Rahami’s family, and they’ve even let him host rap battles with friends in the back.

Jones and other patrons of First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, N.J., said they noticed significant changes in Rahami upon his return from an extended trip to Afghanistan four years ago. He grew a beard, wore traditional Muslim garb, and would pray in the back of the restaurant, they told the Times.

Not only did he look different, the Times reported, but Rahami had become less easygoing.

“It’s like he was a completely different person,” said Jones. “He got serious and completely closed off.”

The manhunt for Rahami ended at around 10:30 Monday morning, when the alleged bomber was spotted sleeping in the doorway of a bar in Linden, N.J., and was reported to police.

Rahami fired on officers who responded to the call. He was injured in the ensuing shootout, handcuffed and taken to Newark’s University Hospital.

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