Mother of bombing suspect’s child seeks full custody

Bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami had a history of conflict with the mother of a child they had together and was constantly in arrears on child support, according to court papers.

The woman, Maria J. Mena of Edison, New Jersey, had not seen Rahami in person for two years and had not talked to him since January, the documents state.

She said she suddenly saw him again on Monday — on television news broadcasts — wounded and bleeding from police bullets as the suspect in bombings in New York and New Jersey.

On Tuesday, Mena filed papers in Superior Court of New Jersey requesting full custody of their child.

Mena stated as her reason that Rahami, 28, of Elizabeth, “has been charged with police attempted murder, and is currently under protective services after possible terrorist related activity in NYC 9/17/16.”

Other Superior Court papers show that Rahami had long been accused of failing to pay child support to Mena. In 2015, for instance, court papers indicated he was $3,546 in arrears. At one point, in 2008, a judge ordered that Rahami’s wages be garnished to pay the support.

Other papers discussed parenting time each parent would receive with the child, with Mena assigned Christmas and Thanksgiving and Rahami assigned the Muslim holy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

In 2012, the parents were ordered not to take the child out of the state or the country without the permission of the other parent or the court.

In a court ruling in 2011, Mena’s request to deny overnight parenting to Rahami was rejected, with the judge saying there was no evidence supporting Mena’s claim that the child was in danger of being removed from the country.

On Tuesday, two Edison Police Department patrol vehicles — an SUV and a sedan — were parked in front of Mena’s single-story house. Two uniformed officers were standing guard.

Reporters camped out across the residential street, but no one emerged from the house.

With Andrew Smith