showed up to disrupt the demonstration<\/a>.<\/p>\nScuffles broke out, and then two radicalized Pennsylvania teens took it one step further, hurling two homemade explosive devices onto the ground \u2014 one of them landing right in front of Edwards and NYPD Sgt. Luis Navarro, with the fuse lit. <\/p>\n
NYPD Sgt. Louis Navarro and Chief Aaron Edwards moments after accused bomb suspect Emir Balat drops an IED. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
How The Post covered Saturday\u2019s botched bombing attempt outside Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cSergeant Navarro alerted me first that he saw these two males with something in their hands, and he tapped me, said, \u2018What are they doing?’\u201d Edwards recalled Tuesday. \u201cI look up and I saw what everyone saw in the videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you know, we needed to just start running towards them. We\u2019re giving commands, we\u2019re making verbal commands,\u201d he said. \u201cWe start running towards them and, you know, the rest you can see on video.\u201d<\/p>\n
The images of the incident show the device on the sidewalk in front of Edwards and Navarro, with suspect Emir Balat, 18, ready to leap over police barricades to get away \u2014 moments before Edwards hurdles the barriers and nabs the teen with help from other cops.<\/p>\n
Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, are now in federal custody facing terrorism charges. <\/p>\n
While the images made Edwards a social media hero, it didn\u2019t sit well with his wife.<\/p>\n
NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards was promoted to commander of PatroL Borough Manhattan North in December. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the latest on the bombs thrown outside Gracie Mansion<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t look at my phone for about three hours, right?\u201d he said. \u201cBut I looked at the phone. I had a missed text from my wife\u2026. and it\u2019s the photo of me and Sergeant Navarro and the suspect is like dropping the device \u2014 you see the device and you see us looking at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a screenshot of it, she has it circled. She puts in in caps \u2014 in big caps: \u2018WRONG DIRECTION SIR,’\u201d Edwards said. \u201cOne of the questions she asked is like, \u2018Are they real?\u2019 I said, Yeah. I think you know, this is very serious. And she said, \u2018Alright. Come home. Come home.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards, who was appointed to the Manhattan North command by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in December, grew up in Saint Albans \u201cin humble beginnings.\u201d<\/p>\n
He attended York College as a biology major, but said the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks changed the course of his life, and led him into a career in law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Bombing suspects Emir Balat, left, and Ibrahim Kayumi during Satuday\u2019s incident. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Edwards insisted that all of the cops outside Gracie Mansion on Saturday deserved credit, but admits he\u2019s always been a hands-on guy who doesn\u2019t wait for someone else to get things done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mind doing the work, get my hands dirty,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when this happens \u2014 and it happens rather quickly \u2014 it wasn\u2019t a thought in my mind on the danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree things gotta happen right now \u2014 we\u2019ve got to catch this person, we\u2019ve go to get people away from this device, and we\u2019ve got to secure this area,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd we were able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NYPD chief hailed as a hero for helping to chase down a pair of accused ISIS-inspired botched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68,8409,57,9,11,10,103,9391,17371,58],"class_list":["post-159906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-exclusive","tag-gracie-mansion","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nypd","tag-police-heroes","tag-terrorists","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159906","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=159906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}