{"id":157230,"date":"2026-03-08T20:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/157230\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:57:07","slug":"counterprotester-threw-improvised-explosive-at-anti-islam-event-in-nyc-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/157230\/","title":{"rendered":"Counterprotester threw improvised explosive at anti-Islam event in NYC, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 A device thrown by a counterprotester<\/a> at an anti-Islam demonstration in New York City on Saturday was confirmed to be an improvised explosive, according to a preliminary police analysis. <\/p>\n

Two people were in custody for their alleged role in the confrontation, which unfolded during a \u201cStop the Islamic Takeover of New York City\u201d event led by the far right activist Jake Lang outside the Manhattan residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. <\/p>\n

The sparsely attended event drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators, including one person who tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws and a \u201chobby fuse\u201d into the crowd, police said. <\/p>\n

In a social media post Sunday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department\u2019s bomb squad determined the object wasn\u2019t a hoax device or smoke bomb, but an \u201cimprovised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch noted. The same person who threw it then received a second device from another counterprotester, which was dropped and did not appear to ignite, the commissioner said. <\/p>\n

Charges against the two counterprotesters were still pending. Tisch said police were working with federal prosecutors and the FBI on the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cViolence at a protest is never acceptable,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement Sunday. \u201cThe attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.\u201d <\/p>\n

A person associated with Lang\u2019s protest was also arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, assault and unlawful possession of a noxious matter after allegedly macing counterprotesters, police said.<\/p>\n

Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving clemency as part of President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping act of clemency<\/a> for Jan. 6 defendants last year. He recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Lang organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters<\/a> that quickly chased him away. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 A device thrown by a counterprotester at an anti-Islam demonstration in New York City on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,64703,64663,5302,9,56,63,65,64,421,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-157230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-gracie-mansion-protests","10":"tag-jake-lang","11":"tag-jessica-tisch","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-u-s-news","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}