NYC Bombing Suspect Faces First Court Hearing

NEW YORK, NY – The man accused of detonating a bomb in New York City's subway system was set to have his first court appearance Wednesday.

Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant who lives in Flatlands, Brooklyn, was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, use of a weapon of mass destruction and three bomb-related counts. He could get up to life in prison.

He's expected to be arraigned from his bed in Bellevue medical center, where he's being treated for burns caused by the crude pipe bomb he's accused of strapping to his body on Monday and detonating in a pedestrian tunnel connected subway stations underneath the Port Authority, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors said he told police he was on a mission to punish the U.S. for attacking the Islamic State group.
"His motivation," Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said, "was not a mystery."

More bomb-making materials were found by investigators who searched his apartment in Brooklyn, police said.

The defendant "had apparently hoped to die in his own misguided rage, taking as many innocent people as he could with him, but through incredible good fortune, his bomb did not seriously injure anyone other than himself," Kim said.

Watch: Charges Announced Against NYC Subway Bomber

(Lead image: Akayed Ullah, the suspect in Monday morning's Midtown Manhattan bombing, is seen in this 2012 Taxi and Limousine Commission photo. He had a license to drive a black car from 2012 to 2015. Photo from NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission)