Police said a device thrown during an anti-Muslim protest near Gracie Mansion on Saturday was an improvised explosive device, one of two recovered at the protest.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a social media post on Sunday that testing by the department’s bomb squad had determined the device was not a hoax or a smoke bomb.
“It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch said.
Police also said Sunday afternoon they had identified another suspicious device, separate from the two recovered at Saturday’s protest, inside a vehicle on East End Avenue between 81st and 82nd streets on the Upper East Side. Officers froze the area around the vehicle and began limited evacuations of nearby buildings.
The bomb squad later removed the device for further testing and residents who had been evacuated were allowed to return to their homes, according to the NYPD.
FBI agents and NYPD Bomb Squad investigate a suspicious vehicle and deploy bomb robots near Gracie Mansion in the area of East End Avenue and East 81st Street in Manhattan.
One of the two devices recovered during Saturday’s protest, the one that was thrown, was ignited during a confrontation between roughly 20 supporters of far-right activist Jake Lang and about 125 counterprotesters gathered near the mayor’s official residence.
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 devices recovered at the protest scene was ongoing Sunday, officials said.
Police arrested two men — 18-year-old Emir Balat, who Tisch said threw the device and was identified as a counterprotester, and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi — for allegedly handling the devices. Charges against the men have not yet been announced.
On Saturday, Tisch had tentatively identified the second suspect as Ibrahim Nikk. Attorney information for the two men was not immediately available.
A man flees after throwing a homemade explosive device towards police during a protest organized by far-right influencer Jake Lang.
The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force is also investigating the incident, Tisch said.
The protest was organized by Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, 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.”
This story has been updated with new information.
