Source: CNN
Two homemade bombs tossed during protests outside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Manhattan home on Saturday are being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.
The first improvised explosive device was thrown as anti-Islam protesters clashed with counterprotesters and did not explode. Two men arrested in connection with the device admitted to being inspired by ISIS, law enforcement sources told CNN.
The same man who threw the IED lit a second bomb, dropped it on the street and ran, the police commissioner said. It also did not explode.
“Preliminary test results determined that these were not hoax devices, nor smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch said at a news conference with the mayor.
And a third device – found Sunday – is being investigated “in connection with” Saturday’s incident, NYPD said. That device tested negative for explosive material, Tisch said.
The violence Saturday erupted during an anti-Islam protest organized by a right-wing provocateur that was dwarfed by a crowd of more than 100 counterprotesters, officials said.
The clash unfolded during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Mamdani, who is the city’s first Muslim mayor, said he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were not at Gracie Mansion at the time.
“The police department has determined that these were improvised explosive devices made to injure, maim or worse,” Mamdani said at the news conference.
“Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law.”
How opposing protests boiled over
An anti-Islam protest organized by right-wing influencer Jake Lang drew about 20 participants. It was outnumbered by a counterprotest called “Drive the Nazis Out of New York,” which peaked at about 125 people, the police commissioner said.
The dueling groups were separated into designated areas, but tensions escalated shortly before noon. Around 12:15 p.m., a protester associated with Lang’s group pepper-sprayed counterprotesters, Tisch said.
Twenty minutes later, a counterprotester “threw an ignited device toward the protest area,” which landed on a crosswalk, Tisch said.
Video shows protesters and police officers scrambling to get away from where the device landed.
“Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke as it traveled through the air before it struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police officers,” the commissioner said.
The man then retrieved a second device from another man before lighting it and starting to run, Tisch said. He dropped the second device on the street, where it appeared to emit smoke but also did not explode.
Officers arrested both men, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayuni. The teens are from Pennsylvania, police said.
Emir Balat is a student in Neshaminy School District, currently 12th grade,” a district spokesperson said in an email to CNN.
Authorities in Pennsylvania’s Middletown Township and Newtown areas “have indicated that there is no known threat to the surrounding community,” Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick posted Sunday night on Facebook.
The police commissioner declined to detail what made investigators believe the incident may be inspired by ISIS, but said more details could emerge Monday afternoon after a criminal complaint is unsealed. Tisch and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York will hold a news conference Monday afternoon.
The anti-Islam protester accused of using pepper spray was also arrested, Tisch said. Another three people were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.
Bolts, screws and powerful explosive material
Both devices recovered Saturday were slightly smaller than footballs and appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape containing bolts, screws and a hobby fuse, Tisch said, citing the NYPD bomb squad’s preliminary analysis.
The first device apparently was made with an unstable material called TATP, the commissioner said.
“TATP is a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world,” Tisch said.
The second device was still being analyzed.
Mamdani said Saturday’s anti-Islam protest was “rooted in bigotry and racism” – but what followed was “even more disturbing,” he said in a statement Sunday.
“Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are,” the mayor said.
Mamdani lauded the bravery of NYPD officers who “faced a chaotic situation that very quickly could have become far more dangerous.”
At the news conference with Tisch on Monday, the mayor commended NYPD Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards and Sgt. Luis Navarro, who “ran towards the danger so that others could run to safety.”
A third device found
On Sunday, the NYPD said it was investigating the third device in a vehicle a few blocks south of Gracie Mansion “in connection with” Saturday’s incident.
The area was blocked off, and “limited evacuations” of buildings were conducted while the bomb squad examined and removed the device for further testing, police said.
A Honda Civic was removed on a flatbed truck around 7 p.m. Sunday, and the streets were reopened.
Disaster averted
This was the first time in nearly a decade that IEDs targeted residents in the nation’s largest city, Tisch said.
“The last time that an IED targeting people was deployed in New York City was in 2017, when Akayed Ullah detonated a device strapped to his torso in the pedestrian underpass connecting the Port Authority bus terminal and the Times Square subway station,” she said.
“No one other than the attacker was injured in that incident. And once again, we were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing.”
