The NYPD’s Bomb Squad confirmed that the devices thrown in the direction of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home were both viable IEDs.
The incident is now under investigation by both the NYPD and the FBI. In total, two devices were thrown during the protests on Saturday afternoon on Manhattan’s swanky Upper East Side.
On Sunday, police spokesperson Jessica Tisch said that the “preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb.”
“It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch added.
The mayor released a statement, slamming the anti-Islam protest led by provocateur Jake Lang.
“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,” the newly elected Democrat said in part.
The mayor was inside the residence at the time, the police department said earlier on Saturday.
“The ‘Crusade Against Islamification’ gathering held outside Gracie Mansion today by Jake Lang, a vile white supremacist, was despicable and Islamophobic,” mayoral press secretary Joe Calvello told The Independent in a statement.
“Thankfully, the Mayor and the First Lady are both safe, though the events are a stark reminder of the threats they both face regularly.”
Lang organized the “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” demonstration and was joined by as many as 20 others, according to local reports. A counter protest, “Run the Nazis out of New York City’s Stand Against Hate Group,” was also organized in response. That group attracted at least five times as many activists. Both protests began aroudn 11 am at East End Avenue and East 87th Street in Manhattan.
Authorities believe that both of the devices were thrown by members of the counter-protest. The suspects have been named as Emir Balat, 18, and Irbahim Nikk, 19. The ignited device sent a cloud of smoke into the air, authorities allege. Both suspects are from Pennsylvania.
Video from the scene shows a man shouting “Allahu Akbar” before throwing what Tish described as a “a jar wrapped in tape, importantly with nuts, bolts, and screws, along with a hobby fuse.”
One device was made of a sports drink bottle with explosive material inside a glass jar filled with “fragmentation” with a fireworks fuse, a law enforcement source told CBS New York.
A person associated with Lang’s protest was also arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, assault and unlawful possession of a noxious matter after allegedly macing counterprotesters, police said.
Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants last year. He recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Earlier this year, Lang organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters that quickly chased him away.
At least one local restaurant owner slammed both of Saturday’s protest groups, which saw a total of six arrests.
“They’re disturbing more business, small business, mom-and-pop more than anything else because everything north of us is closed,” Phil Phillips, the owner of Mansion Restaurant, told ABC New York.
“I’ve been here in this restaurant my entire life, so I’ve watched demonstrations in the sixties, race riots – I’ve watched demonstrations with Vietnam. This didn’t serve any purpose whatsoever other than people arguing with each other,” Phillips added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
