Gracie Mansion protest attempted bombing investigated ‘as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism’

The actions of two men who deployed two explosive devices against an anti-Muslim protest were being “investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday. At a press conference at Gracie Mansion with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Tisch said the two suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, would be prosecuted in Manhattan federal court. 

Six people were arrested in connection with the violent protests outside Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side Saturday after a far-right group organized an Islamophobic demonstration. The “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer” protest reportedly drew about 20 people, and a counter-protest, “Run the Nazis out of New York City: Stand against hate” drew more than 100 people.

As the two groups clashed, an individual connected to the anti-Muslim protest used pepper spray against counterprotesters, and was arrested. Balat and Kayumi were arrested for handling and deploying what police said were improvised explosive devices, including one that was ignited and thrown at the anti-Muslim protest group, and another that was dropped on the ground.

In a brief press conference on the Upper East Side on Saturday evening, Tisch said that there were no reported injuries connected to the incident. Neither device detonated, but they were filled with nuts, bolts and screws and the explosive material TATP. Investigators found another “possible suspicious device” in a nearby car thought to belong to the suspects, which tested negative for explosive material.

“We were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing,” Tisch said Monday. “Devices like these have the potential to cause devastating harm, which is why the NYPD does thorough counterterrorism investigations and treats every incident of this kind with the highest level of urgency and care, and it is why we remain vigilant.”

The men arrested for using those devices remained in custody Sunday, Tisch said, and the NYPD was investigating in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Saturday’s anti-Muslim protest was organized by right-wing activist and pardoned Jan. 6 protester Jake Lang, who has organized other provocative demonstrations, including a pro-ICE protest in Minneapolis. Lang brought a cooked pig, a hateful reference to Islam’s rules against eating pork. “Having a white nationalist coming to rabblerouse and flare anti-Muslim sentiment in New York during the holiest month of the year for Muslims is more than outlandish,” Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, told City & State on Saturday evening. “But also, we’re talking about a white supremacist who’s looking for people to respond to them in this way.”

Little has been publicly reported so far about Balat and Kayumi, though the New York Post reported their suburban Pennsylvania homes had been searched by the FBI. Three additional individuals were arrested Saturday for disorderly conduct. Tisch said there was no evidence the clash was related to “the ongoing hostilities in Iran.”

Mamdani and wife Rama Duwaji were not at Gracie Mansion at the time of the protests. Mamdani had no publicly scheduled events on Saturday, and he said Monday that he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were at the New York Sign Museum in Brooklyn.

The city’s first Muslim mayor has faced Islamophobic and racist attacks during the campaign and in his first months as mayor. Conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg described Mamdani as a “jihadist” and “radical Islam cockroach” in a social media post on Monday. Following widespread condemnation, Rosenberg offered a public apology. 

In a statement Sunday, Mamdani thanked the NYPD and called Lang a “white supremacist” who “organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism.” “Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are,” Mamdani said. “What followed was even more disturbing. 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.”

“New York respects the right to peaceful protest, but we have zero tolerance for hate or violence,” Gov. Kathy Hochul added in a statement on X Saturday evening.