The Gracie Mansion counterprotestors accused of throwing IEDs were inspired by ISIS, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.
Ibraham Kayumi, 19, and Emir Balat, 18, were radicalized and bent on destruction,with two of the three devices linked to them containing the hallmark explosive seen in bombings around the world, Tisch said at a Monday press conference at Gracie Mansion.
Charges against the suspects are not yet clear, though it is expected they will include acts of terrorism and bomb making.
“I can confirm this morning that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” Tisch said.
The suspects were busted Saturday after allegedly hurling two inprovised explosive devices during a contentious clash between right-wing agitator Jake Lang, who hates Muslims, and his supporters, and pro-Muslim counterprotestors.
The homemade explosives were packed with nails, bolts and triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. That substance, known informally as “Mother of Satan,” is easy to make and and been a hallmark of various suicide bomb attacks.
A third device found in the suspects’ car on East End Ave. Sunday was not an explosvie, Tisch said.
Tish noted that the last time an IED was used in the city was in 2017, when Akayed Ullah detonated a botched pipe bomb in a subway tunnel underneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Ullah is now serving life in prison.
“We were fortuanate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing,” Tisch said.
“But luck is never a strategy. Devices like this have the potential to cause devastating harm, which is why the NYPD does counterterrorism investigations and treats every incident of its kind with the highest level of urgency — and it is why we remain vigiliant.”
Mayor Mamdani, who was at a museum in Brooklyn with his wife when the incident happened, said that while the city will not tolerate violence he will never waver in his support of any group, no matter the rhetoric, to protest.
“This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled ‘Stop the Muslim Takeover of New York City,’” Mamdani said. “I’m the first Muslim mayor of New York 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.”
