NEW YORK — New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday that the homemade bomb that was thrown near Gracie Mansion was being investigated as an act of terrorism inspired by the Islamic State group.

Tisch said that an analysis of one of the two improvised explosive devices found after a protest Saturday contained TATP, “a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who also spoke at the news conference, said the devices “were meant to injure, maim or worse.” But it did not detonate, and no one was injured.

The device was thrown Saturday outside the official residence of New York’s mayor as a right-wing rally unfolded near the mansion. The rally was led by Jake Lang, a far-right social media personality, who has led protests in Minneapolis and now New York. His event Saturday was billed as a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” demonstration near Gracie, the Upper East Side home of Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor.

Lang showed up with a goat and about 20 followers, who were wearing American flag hats and “Freedom” sweatshirts. As the day wore on, tensions grew with about 100 counter protesters.

Then toward the end of the event, a man appeared to light a small black object and tossed it on a sidewalk. Police rushed to arrest him and another man as the device emitted smoke. It did not explode.

Six people were arrested in total, including the two men, Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Nikk Kayumi, 19, both of Pennsylvania. Both will be prosecuted in Manhattan federal court, and the charges against them would be released later Monday, Tisch said.

A third device was discovered Sunday inside a vehicle parked on East End Avenue between East 81st and 82nd streets, several blocks south of Gracie Mansion. The Police Department bomb squad determined that the device did not contain explosive materials, Tisch said.

“Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will held accountable in accordance with the law.”

Mamdani and Tisch also commended the actions of two police officers who ran toward Balat when the bomb was thrown.

One of the two men told investigators that their motive had to do with the disrespect of Muslims by Lang, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak about the investigation.

Mamdani called the protest “vile” and “rooted in white supremacy,” but said that he “will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Chelsia Rose Marcius, Emma Goldberg and Yan Zhuang/Graham Dickie
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