New York City police said an improvised device was ignited and deployed during a protest outside the mayor’s residence in Manhattan over the weekend.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Sunday that the department’s bomb squad determined that at least one of the devices thrown during the protest was a functioning improvised explosive device capable of causing significant harm.
“The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb,” Tisch said in a statement posted on social media. “It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”
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The incident that took place on Saturday near Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, where a small anti-Islam protest had gathered and was met by a much larger counterprotest.
The anti-Islam protest was led by pardoned Jan. 6, 2021, rioter Jake Lang, who made news in January for his clashes with anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters in Minnesota. About 20 people attended the rally, while roughly 100 counterprotesters gathered nearby, according to police estimates.
Police said tensions escalated late Saturday morning when a brawl broke out between the protesting groups. Amid the fighting, a counterprotester reportedly screamed “Allahu Akbar” and threw a device toward the crowd.
The device struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police officers, authorities said, describing the device as “a jar wrapped in black tape, with nuts, bolts and screws, along with a hobby fuse that could be lit.”
Two persons of interest, now named as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were taken into custody on the scene. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Mamdani issued a statement about the events at the protest, labeling Lang as a “white supremacist” and saying violence at protests is unacceptable.
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“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.”
Mamdani said he is in close contact with Tisch as the NYPD works with partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI through the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Tisch said further forensic testing is underway on the second device recovered from the scene.