NYPD Arrests Two Men for Tossing Bomb at Anti-Muslim Protest

A chaotic and nearly deadly scene unfolded outside Gracie Mansion on Saturday, March 7, as an anti-Muslim protest hosted by the far-right agitator Jack Lang appeared to end with counterprotestors flinging and dropping lit nail bombs.

Police arrested 18-year-old Emir Balat and-19 year-old Ibrahim Kayumi in connection with the incident, and the federal government says that they have opened a terror probe. According to reports, at least one of the teens intimated to police that they were both consumers of content put out by ISIS, the jihadist group.

Investigators are looking into a trip Balat took to Istanbul last year, as well as trips that Kayumi took to Istanbul and Saudi Arabia in 2024. Balat reportedly lives in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, while Kayumi lives near Balat in Newtown. The younger Balat is also a high-schooler, according to a report by NBC10 Philadelphia.

On Sunday March 8, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that the devices were indeed packed with various nuts and bolts, as well as dangerous explosive materials that failed to ignite properly.

In a statement released that same day, Mayor Zohran Mamdani—who is a himself a practicing Muslim—said that the anti-Muslim protest was “rooted in hate and bigotry” and an “affront to our city’s values,” before going on to describe the bomb-throwing incident as “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,” he added.

Hizzoner and Commissioner Tisch provided an update on the entire situation on Monday, March 9.

“As the NYPD continued their investigation yesterday, they found a third suspicious device in a vehicle on East End Avenue, between East 81st and East 82nd [Streets],” Mamdani said. “Out of an abundance of caution, they conducted a number of limited evacuations of nearby buildings before removing the device from the area.”

“I can confirm that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” Tisch said. She added that NYPD tests on the bombs recovered at the scene were conducted in partnership with the FBI: “Preliminary test results determined that these were not hoax devices, or smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices [IEDs] that could have caused serious injury or death.”

The entire sequence of events began when Lang rallied supporters under the banner of “Americans Against Islamification,” which came with an advertorial poster evoking the Crusades. He then conducted a pig roast in an alleyway next to Effy’s Cafe, at 1688 York Avenue; pig meat is considered haram, or forbidden to eat, by the Muslim faithful.

Lang also had a goat with him, which he proclaimed was Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “second wife.” Neither Mamdani nor his actual wife, Rama Duwaji, were at home in Gracie Mansion during the time of the protest.

Lang’s crew 20 or so protestors was soon swamped by a significantly larger array of around 125 counterprotestors, cops say, including Balat and Kayumi. Some of these counterprotestors, who were rallying under their own banner of “Run the Nazis out of New York City,” initially chased after Lang’s group on foot.

Cell phone footage unveils that things severely escalated when Balat flung a lit homemade object in the direction of Lang and his supporters, who were near the corner of East 87th Street and East End Avenue, at around 12:38 p.m. The flaming object gave off some smoke, but did not detonate.

Balat then made his way back south down East End Avenue towards East 86th Street, where he picked up another device from Kayumi, who was seen on cell phone footage smoking a cigarette.

Balat then dropped the now-lit second device on the west end of East 86th Street, and was tackled and arrested by police officers. The second object didn’t detonate, either. Kayumi was also taken into custody at the scene.

On the Streets of the Upper East Side

The incident caused disruptions across the typically quiet residential area along East End Avenue and nearby streets such as York Avenue. This included evacuations, street closures, and heightened police presence that affected foot traffic and business operations for hours after the arrest.

Many local Yorkville residents in the area were apprehensive to discuss the incident when asked to comment.

Phil Phillips, longtime owner of The Mansion diner at 1634 York Avenue, gave his account of both the protests and arrests. Phillips emphasized his neutrality towards the situation stating “We welcome anyone, all political sides, we sell cheeseburgers, we don’t do politics.”

Phillips described the protests as “relatively peaceful” up until the arrests. He recounted not knowing which side the crowd represented but that they taunted the police lined up at the barricade and added that from what he could see, “the police acted 1,000% appropriately” to the situation.

Phillips said the disruption was bad for business.“It affected small businesses on York Avenue, the size of the population, because people couldn’t go home... the police stopped everyone right here. So that was it. I had people sitting in the store for three or four hours waiting for things to be lifted.”

Phillips also reiterated the non-violent nature he witnessed: “Again, what I saw here was non-violent, low noise. Here, they were just making noise. Nothing more than what it should be, except the ones that intentionally try to provoke the police.”

An anonymous employee at a neighboring bodega stated the crowd started becoming larger at Effy’s Cafe on York Avenue before the police shut down neighboring streets. The source added that as of Monday afternoon March 9, “everything has calmed down.”