The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday night that it is conducting a search of a Pennsylvania storage unit in the ongoing investigation into an “ISIS-inspired terrorism” incident near New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence over the weekend.
The FBI said in a post on X that its New York Joint Terrorism Task Force was conducting the search of a storage unit related to the Saturday incident, where improvised explosive devices were thrown outside of Gracie Mansion during weekend protests. None of the devices were detonated and nobody was injured.
Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, and Emir Balat, 18, are facing federal charges in connection with the incident, including unlawfully possessing and using a “weapon of mass destruction,” transporting explosives, and attempting to aid a “designated foreign terrorist organization,” according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The teenagers are both from Bucks County in Southeastern Pennsylvania, with Balat residing in Langhorne and Kayumi in Newtown, according to authorities.
The two will be held pending an application for bail. In a Monday court hearing, attorneys for Balat and Kayumi requested protective custody for their clients at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The complaint accuses Balat and Kayumi of making statements about ISIS before and after their arrests. Body camera video from the New York City police officers who arrested Kayumi shows him responding “ISIS” to someone in the crowd asking why he had done it, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors said that the pair hoped to inflict more carnage than the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people in 2013.
“This is a publicly declared terror trial, this is the city of New York, he’s 18, and he’s exposed to the general population of what is called a hellhole, and we want to keep him protected,” Mehdi Essmidi, Balat’s attorney, told NBC News on Monday.
An attorney for Kayumi did not immediately return a request for comment.
At a Monday press conference with police, Mamdani said that he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were at a museum in Brooklyn when the explosives were thrown and condemned the incident.
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, also castigated the original event taking place outside his official residence, calling it a “vile protest rooted in white supremacy.”
The anti-Islam demonstration, called “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer,” was led by conservative provocateur Jake Lang, 30. The event drew roughly two dozen protesters and more than 120 counterprotesters, according to police.
Lang declined NBC News’ request to be interviewed.
Lang, who was pardoned for charges tied to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, held a similar rally in Minneapolis in January. The anti-immigration protest was held in the days after Renee Good was fatally shot by a federal immigration officer.