Two Pennsylvania teenagers ignited improvised explosive devices containing triacetone triperoxide, the same volatile compound used in the 2015 Paris and Brussels attacks, outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s official residence on Saturday, prompting the FBI and NYPD to open a federal terrorism investigation after one of the suspects directly referenced ISIS in statements to law enforcement.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed Monday that the case was being investigated as “an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” adding that federal terrorism charges were pending against both suspects.
The devices, constructed from sports drink bottles packed with explosive material and placed inside glass jars wrapped in black tape and surrounded by nuts, bolts, and screws with hobby fuses, were thrown during clashing protests outside Gracie Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“TATP is a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world,” Tisch said at a Monday morning press conference.
The incident began at approximately 12:30 p.m. Saturday when an anti-Islam protest of roughly 20 participants, organized by people associated with Jake Lang, a pardoned January 6 rioter and far-right influencer, gathered outside Gracie Mansion under the banner “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City.” A larger counterprotest of more than 100 people assembled nearby under the title “Run the Nazis Out of New York City/Stand Against Hate.” Police initially separated the two groups with barriers, but tensions escalated as the afternoon progressed.
Shortly after 12:30 p.m., Emir Balat, 18, lit and threw an ignited device toward the original protest group. Witnesses told police they saw flames and smoke as the device traveled through the air before striking a barrier and extinguishing itself a few feet from police officers. Balat then ran away, retrieved a second device from 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, lit it, and started running before dropping it on the street. In video from the scene verified by CBS News, a man appears to yell “Allahu Akbar” just as Balat throws the first device. It is unclear from the footage who was shouting. Both men were from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and were arrested at the scene.
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Authorities searched Balat and Kayumi’s homes as part of the investigation. Investigators said the pair are believed to have watched ISIS videos at home before driving to New York City. One of the suspects directly referenced ISIS in statements to law enforcement, a disclosure that elevated the case from a violent protest incident to a federal terrorism investigation involving the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Balat is a student in Pennsylvania’s Neshaminy School District, while Kayumi is a 2024 graduate of Council Rock High School North.
The investigation widened further on Sunday when the NYPD Bomb Squad dispatched a robot to examine a black Honda on East End Avenue, approximately three blocks south of Gracie Mansion, identified as belonging to the suspects. The robot found another suspicious device and additional bomb-making materials consistent with the first two IEDs inside the vehicle. Residents in adjacent apartments were evacuated while the device was assessed and removed. The NYPD sent all three devices to the FBI’s Quantico laboratory in Virginia for full forensic analysis.
Tisch said both suspects would be prosecuted in federal court, and that the criminal complaint detailing their specific charges would be released later Monday. Mayor Mamdani praised the responding officers at the joint press conference.
“They faced a chaotic situation that very quickly could have become far more dangerous. NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards and Sgt. Luis Navarro ran towards the danger so others could run towards safety,” Mamdani said.
“They’re suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism,” Mamdani said of the two suspects. “Anyone who comes to NYC to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” He also said that while he found Lang’s anti-Islam protest “appalling,” he would not waver in his belief that peaceful protest must be allowed regardless of viewpoint. “Ours is a free society where the right to peaceful protest is sacred. It does not belong only to those we agree with. It belongs to everyone,” he said.
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Ian McGinnis, 21, of Philadelphia, believed to be part of Lang’s original protest, was separately charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of a noxious substance after being captured on video using pepper spray against counter-protesters. Three other individuals were charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction. Lang himself was not charged. Tisch described the two IED suspects as counter-protesters to Lang’s rally, not participants in it, a factual distinction that complicated early media framing of the incident, which initially described the protest environment without clearly attributing the device throws to members of the counterprotest group.
Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor and his wife Rama Duwaji, who is also Muslim, were inside Gracie Mansion at the time of the attack. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force confirmed it was conducting interviews, reviewing video, collecting evidence, and following all investigative leads. Federal terrorism charges, which carry significantly heavier penalties than state-level assault or weapons offenses, were expected to be formally filed before the end of the week.