The NYPD “identified a suspicious device” blocks from Gracie Mansion in connection with the ongoing investigation into the improvised explosive device deployed on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Police sources say what is believed to be explosive material was recovered from a black Honda civic on the Upper East Side. They say it’s connected to the two men in police custody for throwing and igniting devices during a protest outside of Gracie Mansion. One of them\u00a0was determined to be an explosive device that failed to detonate, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.<\/p>\n
The search closed off multiple blocks on East 82nd\u00a0Street where the car was located. Members of the NYPD Bomb Squad and a removal robot were used to inspect the car that was later removed from the scene.<\/p>\n
“What we are looking at here is without a doubt the possibility for terrorism charges, for at least those two suspects, for what would have been a deadly bombing,” said Law Enforcement Analyst Richard Esposito.<\/p>\n
He added that the two suspects have an out-of-state residence in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
During a press conference Saturday, Tisch said the devices were smaller than a football, covered with black tape and filled with nails and bolts.<\/p>\n
Tisch says the NYPD bomb squad is continuing to investigate the second device.<\/p>\n
The two suspects accused of throwing the devices, remain in police custody, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old tentatively identified as Ibrahim Nikk.<\/p>\n
The protest, which happened during Ramadan, called “Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City” was led by Jake Lang, a far-right influencer. He promoted the protest on social media which drew about 20 participants. A counter protest, “Run the Nazis out of New York City, Stand Against Hate” happened simultaneously, drawing roughly 125 participants at its peak.<\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji reside at Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n
Mamdani’s press secretary, Joe Calvello, gave the following statement to News 12:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ‘Crusade Against Islamification’ gathering held outside Gracie Mansion today by Jake Lang, a vile white supremacist, was despicable and Islamophobic. Thankfully, the Mayor and the First Lady are both safe, though the events are a stark reminder of the threats they both face regularly. The Mayor has spoken with Police Commissioner Tisch, and the NYPD is actively investigating the protest, counter-protest, and suspicious devices discovered outside Gracie Mansion.”<\/p>\n
Mamdani issued a statement saying in part that “violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NYPD “identified a suspicious device” blocks from Gracie Mansion in connection with the ongoing investigation into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,8409,22925,9,24,63,6986,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-158578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-gracie-mansion","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-protest","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158578","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=158578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}