(NEW YORK) \u2014 Two improvised explosive devices brought to\u00a0a counterprotest\u00a0outside Gracie Mansion in New York City Saturday are being investigated as \u201can act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,\u201d and the two suspects arrested in connection with the incident are facing federal terrorism charges, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.<\/p>\n
According to a federal criminal complaint released Monday, both suspects openly pledged allegiance to ISIS while in the presence of police, and one suspect allegedly told officers they \u201cwanted to carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing,\u201d which the suspect noted \u201ccaused only \u2018three deaths.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The explosive devices contained the volatile substance triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP, and were made to \u201cinjure, maim or worse,\u201d Tisch said of Saturday\u2019s incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were not hoax devices or smoke bombs.\u00a0They were improvised explosive devices,\u201d Tisch said during a news conference outside the Gracie Mansion mayor\u2019s residence with New York City Mayor Zohran Mandami, the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor.<\/p>\n
One of the devices was ignited and deployed at protesters in a crosswalk on East End Avenue and East 87 Street, and the other device was detonated close by, Tisch said.<\/p>\n
Tisch said a third suspected IED was found in the car of the two suspects, a black 2010 Honda with New Jersey license plates, parked on the Upper East Side of Manhattan near Gracie Mansion, prompting an immediate evacuation of homes in the area. She said the device did not test positive for explosives.<\/p>\n
All of the devices are being sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for additional testing, Tisch said.<\/p>\n
Two Pennsylvania men who are in custody are charged in a five-count federal complaint with attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS, use of a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.<\/p>\n
The suspects were identified as Emir Balat of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and Ibrahim Kayumi of Newton, Pennsylvania, according to Tisch and the federal complaint.<\/p>\n
The suspects were ordered to be held without bail after they made their initial appearances, both in shackles, in Manhattan federal court on Monday afternoon. They did not enter a plea to the charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism,\u201d Mamdani said Monday. \u201cLet me say this plainly: Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The explosives were deployed at an anti-Muslim protest outside Gracie Mansion that was organized by far-right, anti-immigrant provocateur Jack Lang, officials said. The event was called \u201cStop the Islamic Takeover of New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anti-Muslim protest drew counterprotesters who called their response \u201cRun Nazis Out of New York City,\u201d according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cFBI\u2019s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the matter with our partners at NYPD as well as the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York,\u201d the FBI said in a\u00a0statement\u00a0Sunday.<\/p>\n
Balat and Kayumi are suspected of attending the event as part of the counterprotest to the anti-Muslim demonstration, authorities said Monday.<\/p>\n
Neither Mamdani nor his wife, Rama Duwaji, were in Gracie Mansion when the incident occurred, the mayor said Monday.<\/p>\n
Immediately following his arrest, Kayumi was asked by someone in the surrounding crowd why he allegedly attempted to bomb the protest, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cKayumi responded in part and as captured on NYPD body-worn camera footage, \u2018ISIS,’\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n
Balat waived his Miranda rights to remain silent following his arrest, according to the complaint, and allegedly provided a written statement in which he \u201cpledge[d] [] allegience [sic] to the Islamic State,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n
Balat also allegedly told police that \u201cthey wanted to carry out an attack bigger than the\u00a0Boston Marathon bombing, which Balat noted caused only \u2018three deaths,’\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
The April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing also left more than 500 people injured.<\/p>\n
Kayumi, whom the complaint said also waived his Miranda rights, allegedly \u201cstated, in substance and in part, that he was affiliated with ISIS; watched ISIS propaganda on his phone; and was partly inspired to carry out his actions that day by ISIS,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the one million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home,\u201d Mamdani said at Monday\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I found this protest appalling. I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen. Ours is a free society, where the right to peaceful protest is sacred. It does not only belong to those we agree with. It belongs to everyone,\u201d Mandani added.<\/p>\n
Many of the counterprotesters on Saturday confronted the \u201cdisplay of bigotry,\u201d the mayor said. He also praised NYPD officers who swiftly responded to the incident and arrested the suspects, saying they were \u201cfaced with a chaotic situation that quickly could have become far more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor specifically cited the \u201ccourageous and selfless\u201d acts of two NYPD officers, Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards and Sgt. Luis Navarro, who attended Monday\u2019s news conference. Mamdani said the officers \u201cran towards the danger so that others could run safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tisch said the last incident in New York City in which an IED was deployed occurred in December 2017, when\u00a0Akayed Ullah\u00a0detonated a homemade bomb he had strapped to his torso in a pedestrian underpass connecting the Port Authority Bus Terminal to the Time Square subway station.<\/p>\n
Ullah, a permanent resident of Bangladesh who was living in Brooklyn at the time, was the only person injured in the act, which federal prosecutors said was committed on behalf of ISIS of Iraq. Ullah was convicted in April 2021 by a federal jury on all six counts of the indictment and was sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n
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