A Queens man tied to a suspected al Qaeda-trained terrorist may have been trying to kill himself when he crashed his car into the back of another at the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, law enforcement sources said.
Adis Medunjanin, 25, called 911 as he sped erratically away from federal agents through Queens streets at up to 90 mph.
“We love death more than you love life!” he exclaimed in Arabic.
Medunjanin also praised Allah moments before he rear-ended another vehicle, sources said.
Police are investigating the bizarre crash as a possible suicide attempt by the frantic Medunjanin, in the wake of a federal raid on his Queens home.
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Medunjanin, 24, a recent graduate of Queens College, and Zarein Ahmedzay, 25, had been under intense surveillance in their homes since September when their former Flushing HS classmate Najibullah Zazi was arrested on suspicion of plotting a new 9/11-style attack in New York.
The latest twist in the case began Thursday afternoon, when neighbors said seven federal agents showed up at Medunjanin’s two-bedroom co-op where he lives with his parents.
“They wanted his passport to document his travels,” a law enforcement source said of the raid by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force.
About an hour after the feds confiscated the passport and left, the Bosnian-born Medunjanin got into his car and was tailed by agents.
He accelerated to get away from them until the crash. Then he fled on foot until he was chased down by members of the task force and hospitalized for minor injuries, police said.
He initially was charged only with fleeing the scene of an accident, but sources said he would be charged with providing material support to terrorism when arraigned in Brooklyn federal court tomorrow at 10 a.m.
His lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, fumed about a lack of information.
“The US attorney has refused to give me any of the details,” he said. He said he hasn’t been able to speak to Medunjanin.
Ahmedzay, an Afghan-born cab driver, was picked up by authorities in Greenwich Village Thursday night and pleaded not guilty yesterday to a single charge of lying to federal agents when he was questioned in September.
He allegedly lied when asked about traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2008 and whether he knew a “John Doe” — apparently referring to Zazi — who is believed to have attended military training at al Qaeda camps.
Anti-terror experts called the Zazi case one of the most serious threats since the 9/11 attacks. They said Zazi took bomb-making classes from al Qaeda, then returned to the United States to buy beauty supplies in a Denver suburb to make peroxide-based explosives.
Prosecutors said he tried to mix explosives in a hotel room in early September, then drove to New York to carry out an attack, possibly on the transit system, they said.
Relatives of Ahmedzay at his Parsons Boulevard home said he is a hard worker who regularly attends a local mosque.
Asked if Ahmedzay hates America, his older brother Nazir said, “If he did, he wouldn’t be living here.”
“He’s not guilty. He’s a good guy. He works hard to support his family,” said another brother, Shrief Ahmedzay, 22.
Mayor Bloomberg said the case “highlights the fact that New York, because it’s a symbol of democracy of the United States to many people around the world, is always going to be a target, and we cannot let our guard down.”
Additional reporting by Ikimulisa Livingston, Lorena Mongelli, John Doyle. Selim Algar and David Seifman