The NYPD confirmed an improvised explosive device (IED) capable of causing serious injury and even death was thrown during dueling protests outside the New York City mayor’s residence on Saturday.
As reported on Monday’s AM Update, the incident unfolded outside Gracie Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, when about 20 people gathered for a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” protest organized by individuals associated with pardoned January 6 rioter Jake Lang. A counterprotest called “Drive the Nazis Out of New York” drew about 125 people.
As tensions flared, one member of the anti-Islam group reportedly pepper-sprayed a counterprotestor. What followed is now being described by authorities as an “act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.”
The Attack
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a counterprotestor identified as 18-year-old Emir Balat lit and threw an ignited device toward the protest area, landing in the crosswalk of East 87th Street and East End Avenue at approximately 12:38pm. 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, Tisch said.
Balat allegedly retrieved a second device from a man identified as 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi. Tisch said Balat lit the device and started running with it before dropping it on the street. Police officers immediately took both men into custody.
The incident was caught on video, and Balat could be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he threw the device and again as NYPD officers placed him in the back of a police vehicle. Fox News reported both suspects are believed to be U.S. citizens. Balat’s parents are reportedly naturalized citizens from Turkey, while Kayumi’s parents are naturalized from Afghanistan.
During a press conference Monday morning, Tisch confirmed authorities were investigating Saturday’s incident as “an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.” She also provided additional details about the IEDs. “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,” the commissioner explained.
She said initial probes found one of the devices deployed by the suspects contained the substance triacetone triperoxide (TATP). “Now, TATP is a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world,” Tisch said.
The Charges
In a criminal complaint filed Monday, federal prosecutors alleged Balat told investigators after his arrest that he and co-defendant Kayumi wanted to stage an attack “bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing” that killed three people and injured more than 500 more in 2013.
According to the complaint, both men made statements referencing ISIS in the aftermath of the incident. Kayumi was allegedly captured on police body cam footage responding “ISIS” when asked why he carried out the attack. Prosecutors said Balat wrote on a piece of paper that he “pledge allegiance to the Islamic State.”
The two men are facing five federal charges, including use of a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, and attempted provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Mamdani’s Response
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, was not at Gracie Mansion at the time of the attack and has been conspicuously silent on key details of it. It took him 24 hours to release any sort of comment. The statement he eventually put out on X on Sunday, blamed the “white supremacist” protest, not those actually responsible for the alleged terrorism.
“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. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are,” he wrote, in part. “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.”
At the Monday press conference with his police commissioner, Mamdani offered more of the same. “On Saturday, a protest was held outside Gracie Mansion, where I live with my wife, Rama. Neither of us were home at the time. This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled ‘Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City,'” he read from prepared remarks. “I’m the first Muslim mayor of our city. Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the one million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home. While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen.”
When he did finally get around to mentioning the suspects, he left out some important information. “Many of the counterprotestors met this display of bigotry peacefully with a vision of a city that is welcoming to all. But a few did not,” Mamdani added. “Two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City. They are suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism. There is video of these two individuals throwing two devices toward the protest.”
“Nothing about an IED, nothing about ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and nothing about the cops being on the receiving end of those devices,” Megyn lamented on Monday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show. “He can’t bring himself to say it still, and to deny what that was actually about is to endanger everyone in New York City… This is a radical Islamic terrorist attack on the people of New York City. That’s what this was.”
The Mum Media
But Mamdani isn’t the only one who is obscuring the real story. As Megyn explained the mayor “will be aided and is being aided” by the media. The New York Times coverage of the attack was headlined “U.S. Authorities Are Investigating Device Thrown Near Gracie Mansion.”
“Well, now that omits some key details, doesn’t it, New York Times” Megyn quipped.
The local NBC affiliate was similarly vague. “Mayor Mamdani was not at Gracie Mansion when protesters lit devices” the headline of its coverage read. “I don’t know about you, Megyn, but I’m very concerned if there’s someone throwing devices into crowds. Are people getting hit in the head with iPads,” guest Stu Burguiere joked. “Thank you so much for your specificity there.”
It took a foreign news outlet to actually get to the heart of the story. “Terror probe launched after ‘Isis fanatics’ hurl bomb at New York City Mayor’s home” is how British broadcaster GB News described it.
“That’s our friends across the pond who are more fair and balanced. They’re a relatively new cable outlet over there. They managed to get it right,” Megyn said. “How’d they get it right? They’re not even American. How did they get a better headline than The New York Times? This happened in New York City.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Burguiere by tuning in to episode 1,268 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.