Cops have lifted fingerprints from the bicycle they believe was used by the Times Square bomber and hope to use them to nab the man who blew up the military recruiting center, a police source said yesterday.
Investigators are also sifting through shards from the metal ammunition box that exploded at the scene Thursday morning, as well as checking the bike, for DNA that might have been left by the bomber. They’re also checking records of cellphone transmissions around the area for clues, the source said.
Cops will first compare the fingerprints left on the frame of the blue Ross 10-speed bike with those of people they expect to rule out in the crime: the several construction workers and a building superintendent who handled it after finding it dumped in a trash bin on East 38th Street several hours after the bombing, the source said.
“We’re eliminating non-suspects’ fingerprints first,” the source said.
If there are any remaining prints on the bike, they will be checked against databases of fingerprints of previously arrested people, the source said.
As seen on surveillance video, the bomber bicycled up to the recruiting center around 3:40 a.m. and left a small ammunition box filled with black-powder explosives outside.
The makeshift bomb exploded as he peddled away to safety, damaging the front of the center but injuring no one.
Cops did not find any fingerprints on shards of the metal ammunition box, according to a source.
Investigators are also continuing to review surveillance-video footage from the area. So far, a source said, they have been unable to determine the route the bomber took to Times Square.
Police believe the bomber to be the same person responsible for similar explosions at the British and Mexican consulates in recent years and may have been involved in several other small bombings going back a decade.
The bike was turned over to police after someone at the East 38th Street building heard a bicycle had been used in the bombing. Police linked it to the crime.
Investigators determined that the 10-year-old bike was sold by a store north of New York City. That store is now closed, but cops are trying to locate the former owner to see whether he or she knows anything about who bought the bike.
Cops also want to talk to a 22-year-old Connecticut man who was arrested in February 2005 for allegedly throwing a burning rag at an Army recruitment post in the Parkchester section of The Bronx.
Police don’t believe the man is a likely suspect in the Times Square bombing but want to rule him out, a source said.