"I would stop very short of calling him a suspect," said John Miller, the New York Police Department's top counterterror official. "It is possible that somebody put out a bunch of items in the trash today and this guy picked them up and then discarded them, or it's possible that this was an intentional act."
Earlier, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said authorities suspected the items were placed in the subway "to suggest that they were electronic devices and possible bombs."
About two hours later, a third rice cooker — the same make, year and model — was also found about 2 miles away (3 kilometers) on a sidewalk in the Chelsea neighborhood, prompting another police investigation.
"This is a frightening world we live in, and all of these situations have to be taken seriously because God forbid one day ... it's a real device," said Cuomo, a Democrat. "We learned the hard way after 9/11, and we are prepared."
Michael Oji, a New Jersey resident who works in lower Manhattan, said he's lived in the metro area for more than 20 years and saw the additional security that came to the area after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Going to work in the morning, thinking that everything's OK, and you run into something like this, it's scary," he said just outside an entrance to the station that had been closed off by armed officers.
Multiple subway lines were partially suspended during the police investigation at Fulton Street, and delays continued throughout the morning.
Pressure cookers packed with explosives killed three people and injured hundreds when a pair of Islamic extremists detonated them during the Boston Marathon in 2013.
In September 2016, a pressure-cooker bomb went off in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, injuring 30 people.
In 2017, a would-be suicide attacker set off a homemade pipe bomb in an underground passageway at the Times Square subway station during rush hour, seriously injuring himself.
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