NYPD says device thrown during protests outside Gracie Mansion was homemade bomb

The FBI is investigating after someone lobbed a homemade bomb Saturday in Manhattan during an anti-Islam demonstration and counterprotest near the mayor's official residence.

On Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said two devices were brought to the protest outside Gracie Mansion. One device, allegedly thrown by counterprotester Emir Balat, 18, struck a barrier and extinguished itself "a few feet from police officers." A second device was also dropped, Tisch said, but no injuries were reported. Neither device detonated. Tisch also named a second suspect in custody in connection with the devices, Ibrahim Kayumi, 19.

In a Sunday post on X, Tisch confirmed that one of the devices was an IED, with testing continuing on the second device. Details about what charges the pair could face were not immediately available Sunday. 

"The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb. It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death," she said.

Tisch added that "the NYPD is working on this investigation with our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI through our Joint Terrorism Task Force."

The FBI confirmed its involvement on Sunday evening.

Also on Sunday afternoon, the NYPD posted on X that they were investigating a "suspicious device in a vehicle" on East End Avenue between 81st and 82nd streets, just a few blocks from where the IED was thrown.  The inspection of the vehicle was conducted as part of the investigation into Saturday's incident, the department said.

Police also closed streets and "limited evacuations of buildings" were ordered as the bomb squad removed the device, according to the post.  Police hoisted a Honda Civic at the scene onto a flatbed truck around 7. p.m. and reopened the streets. 

On Saturday, the conservative influencer Jake Lang led a group of about 20 people to Gracie Mansion as part of an event called "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City," according to police. The counterprotest, called "Run the Nazis out of New York City, Stand Against Hate," drew up to 125 people at its height, according to Tisch.

The devices appeared to be jars smaller than a football, containing nuts, bolts and screws with a "hobby fuse that could be lit," the commissioner said on Saturday.

A member of Lang's group pepper sprayed counterprotesters before the IED was allegedly thrown, the NYPD said.

The member of Lang's group who used pepper spray was also arrested, as were others for "disorderly conduct and disrupting traffic," Tisch said on Saturday.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a statement on Sunday, condemned the bomb-throwing and thanked police who responded.

Mamdani, in his statement, said: "Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. ... 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. I want to thank the brave men and women of the NYPD who ... ran toward danger without hesitation, demonstrating once again the courage and dedication it takes to protect this city every single day."

Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He received clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 defendants last year. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

With AP
  

By Peter Gill

peter.gill@newsday.com