Newsman: A planned attack involving homemade explosive devices during an anti-Islam demonstration outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence over the weekend was inspired by the terror group ISIS, authorities said Monday. One of the devices was ignited but didn’t explode.
“These were ISIS-inspired actions,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said during a news conference.
Two men from Pennsylvania, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, are now facing federal charges after being arrested outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s home, on Saturday.
Both suspects admitted that their actions on Saturday were because of ISIS, Tisch said. Kayumi allegedly told investigators that he had watched ISIS propaganda on his phone and was partly inspired by the group, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. According to the police commissioner, Balat pledged his allegiance to ISIS in writing while he was in custody.
Balat allegedly told investigators that he wanted to carry out an attack that was bigger than the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed three people, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
“This was not random violence,” Police Commissioner Tisch told reporters. “This was a planned attack motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by a violent foreign terrorist organization.”
Federal prosecutors in New York unveiled charges Monday against the two men. They are each being charged with:
Attempted provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization,Use of a weapon of mass destruction, Transportation of explosive materials, Interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, Unlawful possession of destructive devices.
Mamdani said the suspects were seen on video throwing two devices toward protests outside Gracie Mansion on Saturday. The FBI said the devices contained explosive materials and fragmentation that could have killed and maimed numerous people.
“Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have been charged with committing a heinous act of terrorism and proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS. They should be held fully accountable for their actions,” Mamdani said in a statement Monday. “We will continue to keep New Yorkers safe. We will not tolerate terrorism or violence in our city.”
The FBI said later Monday that it was conducting “a court-authorized search of a storage unit in Pennsylvania related to the investigation into the incident near Gracie Mansion.”
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has taken the lead and launched a terrorism investigation. Tisch said search warrants were executed at the suspects’ residences in Pennsylvania.
Videos showing the chaos from the protests, verified by the CBS News Confirmed team, show a man apparently yelling “Allahu Akbar” – or “God is Most Great” – just as a protester, identified as Balat, allegedly throws an “ignited device.”
Tisch described the device as “a jar wrapped in tape, importantly with nuts, bolts and screws along with a hobby fuse.”
According to Tisch, the first device thrown by Balat extinguished itself after striking a barrier in a crosswalk, a few feet from police officers.
Balat then ran away and allegedly retrieved a second device from Kayumi, lit the device and started running with it before dropping the device, Tisch said.
Balat and Kayumi were taken into custody. Police arrested a person, identified as 21-year-old Ian McGuiness, who allegedly used pepper spray on counter-protesters, and three others on disorderly conduct and obstruction charges.
Another suspicious device was found Sunday in a vehicle on East End Avenue about three blocks south of the park where Gracie Mansion is located, the NYPD said, prompting “limited evacuations of buildings in the vicinity while the Bomb Squad assesses and removes the device.” Police commissioner Tisch said Monday that the vehicle was linked to the suspects, and that investigators recovered from the vehicle handwritten notes with references to TATP and listing chemical ingredients for the type of explosive device used Saturday.
The device was safely removed for further testing, the NYPD said later Sunday.
Investigators looking into suspects’ background
Investigators are looking into the overseas travel for Balat and Kayumi. Balat left the U.S. for several months and traveled to Istanbul from May 6 to Aug. 26, 2025. He most recently traveled back to the U.S. from Turkey in January of this year. Meanwhile, Kayumi traveled to Istanbul for several weeks in July and August 2024 and to Saudi Arabia in late March of that year.
Federal investigators have also been interviewing family members of Balat and Kayumi as part of their investigation, as well as looking at their online communications.
Balat’s parents were born in Turkey and were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2017. Balat is a U.S. citizen and has been living with his family in a large two-story home in Pennsylvania. A woman at the residence confirmed to CBS Philadelphia that Balat lived at the house.
Kayumi’s parents are originally from Afghanistan. They became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2004 and 2009. It is unclear if Kayumi was living with them at the time of the incident Saturday.
In a statement on Sunday, Mamdani specifically mentioned Lang and said the protest outside Gracie Mansion was “rooted in bigotry and racism” and 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 said.
He also said, “The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”
