Police said a device thrown during an anti-Muslim protest near Gracie Mansion on Saturday was an improvised explosive device.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced in a social media post Sunday that testing by the department’s bomb squad had determined the device was not a hoax or a smoke bomb.
The device was thrown during a confrontation between roughly 20 supporters of far-right activist Jake Lang and about 125 counterprotesters gathered near the mayor’s official residence.
“It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch said.
The football-sized devices appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape and filled with nuts, screws and bolts, Tisch said previously. They had fuses that could be lit. Further testing of the device and a second device recovered at the scene was ongoing on Sunday, officials said. The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force is also investigating the incident.
Police arrested two men — 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi — for allegedly handling the devices. On Saturday, Tisch had tentatively identified the second suspect as Ibrahim Nikk.
The protest was organized by far-right activist and pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang and was called “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City. Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer.”
Roughly 125 counterprotesters confronted Lang’s supporters. A series of scuffles broke out between the two groups. A total of six people, including Balat and Kayumi, were arrested at the protest.
Gracie Mansion is the city’s official mayoral residence. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is New York’s first Muslim mayor, was not home at the time.
Mamdani condemned both Lang and the attempted bombing in a social media post on Sunday.
“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,” 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.”
Both Mamdani and Tisch praised the quick response of police officers at the scene.
