{"id":159125,"date":"2026-03-10T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/159125\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:33:07","slug":"improvised-explosive-thrown-outside-gracie-mansion-nypd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/159125\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvised explosive thrown outside Gracie Mansion: NYPD"},"content":{"rendered":"

A device thrown by a counterprotester<\/a> during a demonstration outside Gracie Mansion was an improvised explosive that could have caused serious injury or death, police said Sunday, as authorities also investigated a second suspicious device found nearby.<\/p>\n

The confrontation unfolded Saturday during a \u201cStop the Islamic Takeover of New York City\u201d rally led by far-right activist Jake Lang outside the Manhattan residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

The event drew a much larger group of counterdemonstrators, police said. During the protest, one counterprotester tossed a smoking object into the crowd.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Police say a device thrown by a counterprotester at a protest near Gracie Mansion was an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death
\n
Two counterprotesters, ages 18 and 19, were taken into custody, though charges had not yet been filed
\n
Authorities also investigated a second suspicious device found Sunday in a vehicle nearby, prompting street closures and limited evacuations
\n
The demonstration was organized by far-right activist Jake Lang and drew a much larger group of counterprotesters<\/p>\n

In a social media post Sunday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department\u2019s bomb squad determined the object was not a hoax device or smoke bomb but an improvised explosive device.<\/p>\n

The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch noted, adding that the same person then received a second device from another counterprotester. That device was dropped and did not appear to ignite.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the devices appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape and packed with nuts, bolts and screws, along with a hobby fuse that could be lit.<\/p>\n

Two counterprotesters, ages 18 and 19, were taken into custody in connection with the devices, though charges had not yet been filed as of Sunday. Police said they were working with federal prosecutors and the FBI as the investigation continued.<\/p>\n

Later Sunday, officers responding to the area near Gracie Mansion discovered a second suspicious device inside a vehicle on East End Avenue between East 81st and East 82nd streets.<\/p>\n

Several streets were closed and limited evacuations were ordered as the bomb squad assessed the vehicle and removed the device.<\/p>\n

Residents in nearby buildings were temporarily kept from returning home while authorities secured the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told to wait until they removed the car from East End Avenue before going back to our apartment, which I think is the right precaution,\u201d said Upper East Side resident Kristina Kuzmina. \u201cYou obviously don\u2019t want to be in the midst of it, and I think it\u2019s important to let law enforcement control the situation without people getting involved and potentially getting hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuzmina said residents waited near East 82nd Street and York Avenue until police gave them the all-clear to return home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely scary,\u201d she said. \u201cYou just wait to hear if it\u2019s safe to go back home. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve confirmed if it\u2019s an explosive yet, but fingers crossed that it wasn\u2019t because a lot of people live in these areas, so it\u2019s always a frightening thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement Sunday, Mamdani said violence during protests is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\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 the mayor said.<\/p>\n

Police also arrested a person associated with Lang\u2019s protest and charged them with reckless endangerment, assault and unlawful possession of a noxious substance after they allegedly used mace on counterprotesters.<\/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 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 that quickly chased him away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A device thrown by a counterprotester during a demonstration outside Gracie Mansion was an improvised explosive that could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25,118,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,380,27,200],"class_list":["post-159125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159125","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=159125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}