tFBI launches terrorism investigation after homemade explosive device ignited outside of NYC Mayor Mamdani’s residence

The device lit on Saturday in front of the New York mayor’s residence contained explosive materials and fragments that could have killed and mutilated numerous people, according to police sources close to the investigation. A federal terrorism investigation is underway and terrorism charges are pending.

Two people from Pennsylvania were arrested Saturday afternoon outside Gracie Mansion, which is the home of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife, after a suspicious device was ignited.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters Saturday that an anti-Islam protest was organized by people associated with Jake Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter and far-right influencer. A group of counter-protesters, numbering more than 100, also gathered, and two young men from Pennsylvania, angered by the anti-Islam demonstration, brought the pipe bombs to the rally, intending to cause harm, law enforcement sources told CBS News.

The NYPD Bomb Squad sent the devices to the FBI’s Quantico Laboratory for analysis. It was determined that one of the devices was not a “hoax or smoke bomb” but rather “an improvised explosive device (IED) that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch said in a statement Sunday.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News the devices consisted of a sports drink bottle filled or partially filled with explosive material placed in glass jars and surrounded by fragments, or nuts and bolts. The fuse was apparently connected to an M80 type firework.

Two sources told CBS News that the IEDs contained triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, a volatile explosive material. It is often synthesized from acetone and hydrogen peroxide, appearing as a white crystalline powder.

Another suspicious device was found in a vehicle on East End Ave on Sunday. about three blocks south of the park where Gracie Mansion is located, the New York Police Department said, prompting “limited evacuations of nearby buildings while the bomb squad assesses and removes the device.”

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force took the lead and launched a terrorism investigation. Search warrants are expected to be executed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, sources told CBS News.

Videos of the chaos of the protests, verified by the CBS News Confirmed team, show a man apparently shouting “Allahu Akbar” — or “God is greatest” — just as a protester, identified as Emir Balat, 18, of Pennsylvania, allegedly threw a “flaming device.”

Investigators are looking into whether at least one of the subjects was inspired by extremist messages from ISIS, sources told CBS News.

Tisch described the device as “a jar wrapped in duct tape, containing mostly nuts, bolts and screws and a hobby fuse.”

According to Tisch, the first device launched by Balat went off after hitting a barrier in a pedestrian crossing, a few meters from the police.

Balat then ran away and allegedly retrieved a second device from Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, turned the device on and started running with it before dropping it, Tisch said.

Balat and Kayumi, also from Pennsylvania, were arrested. Police arrested one person, identified as Ian McGuiness, 21, for allegedly using pepper spray on counterprotesters, as well as three other people for disorderly conduct and obstruction.

Investigators are looking into Balat and Kayumi’s overseas travels. Balat left the United States for several months and traveled to Istanbul from May 6 to August 26, 2025. During this time, Kayumi traveled to Istanbul for several weeks in July and August 2024 and to Saudi Arabia in late March of the same year.

In a statement released Sunday, Mamdani specifically mentioned Lang and said the protest outside Gracie Mansion was “rooted in bigotry and racism” and had no place in New York.

“This is an affront to the values ​​of our city and the unity that defines who we are,” he said.

He did not name the two men arrested in connection with the IEDs. Instead, he said: “The attempt to use an explosive device and harm others is not only criminal, but reprehensible and contrary to who we are.” »