Two men who brought explosives to a protest outside New York City’s mayoral mansion said they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, a court complaint said.
Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were being held without bail after their arraignment Monday on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction.
Their lawyers didn’t argue for bail but could do so later.
The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islamic demonstration led by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the office.
“Balat and Kayumi sought to incite fear and mass suffering through this alleged attempted terror attack in the backyard of an elected city official,” James Barnacle, who leads the FBI’s New York office, said at a news conference after the brief court session.
The men said nothing during the brief proceeding, but Kayumi smirked and looked over at Balat as the judge read part of the complaint that said they were acting in support of the Islamic State group.
Balat stared ahead at the defence table.
According to the complaint, Kayumi blurted out as he was arrested on Saturday that ISIS was the reason for his conduct. Balat, 18, later told authorities that he had pledged allegiance to the extremist group, and Kayumi, 19, asserted he was affiliated with the Islamic State group, the complaint said.
Officers asked Balat whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013, when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and wounding hundreds more.
“No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to the complaint.
Emir Balat’s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said outside court that his client is a Philadelphia-area high school senior with “complicated stuff going on” in his personal life. “There’s a lot to figure out,” the attorney added.
Asked whether he believed Balat was a terrorist, the lawyer said: “I believe he’s 18 and he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing.”
Kayumi’s lawyer, Michael Arthus, pointed in court to the extensive publicity surrounding the case and asked that prosecutors avoid saying anything that could prejudice potential jurors.
Essmidi said he didn’t believe the two young men had known each other for long. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said neither defendant had a criminal history.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi commented on social media that authorities “will not allow ISIS’s poisonous, anti-American ideology to threaten this nation.”
Suspects both Pennsylvania residents
An automated license plate reader captured the suspects — both Pennsylvania residents — entering New York City from New Jersey less than an hour before the noontime attack, according to the complaint. Kayumi’s mother filed a missing person report saying she last saw him around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
The suspects’ vehicle — registered to one of Balat’s relatives — was discovered Sunday a few blocks from where they were arrested. A search of the car turned up a fuse and a metal can, along with a written list of chemical ingredients and components that could be used to build explosives, the complaint said.
No ties to Iran war identified
Speaking outside the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, on Monday morning, Mamdani said Balat and Kayumi “travelled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City.” Mamdani and his wife weren’t home during the protest.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there are no indications that the men’s alleged activities were connected to the ongoing war in Iran. The Islamic State is a group of Sunni extremists; Iran’s population is almost entirely Shia, the other main religious community within Islam.
While Mamdani and Tisch briefed reporters Monday, Lang heckled from outside the Gracie Mansion gates.
Meanwhile, police have searched a home in eastern Pennsylvania’s Middletown Township, and a separate federal investigation was underway in nearby Newtown, local police said.
Chaotic scene
Lang’s sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators. Amid the faceoff, Balat tossed a jar-sized device that contained the explosive TATP into the crowd, the complaint said. It also contained a fuse, plus an exterior layer of duct-taped nuts and bolts, the complaint said.
The device extinguished itself steps from police officers. According to the complaint, Balat then ran down the block and collected a second, similar device from Kayumi, dropped it near some police officers and tried to run away, the complaint said. Police tackled Balat and soon arrested him and Kayumi.
The scene had grown chaotic even before the devices were thrown. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam protest, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after pepper-spraying counterprotesters. McGinnis, of Philadelphia, was released without bond after pleading not guilty Sunday to assault and aggravated harassment in a New York court, records show. A message seeking comment was left Monday for his attorney.
Three others were taken into custody but were released without charges.
After the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes. He was later freed from prison as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away.
