{"id":161191,"date":"2026-03-12T07:57:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161191\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T07:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:57:44","slug":"officers-hailed-as-heroes-for-work-during-botched-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161191\/","title":{"rendered":"Officers hailed as heroes for work during botched attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By now, the picture of NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards, mid-stride, clearing a barricade while chasing down suspects during Saturday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/ny1.com\/nyc\/all-boroughs\/news\/2026\/03\/07\/arrests-made-after-anti-muslim-rally-outside-gracie-mansion-turns-violent--nypd-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">attempted bombing<\/a> during dueling protests outside Gracie Mansion has gone everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was all instinct. There wasn\u2019t a lot of thought. There was a real threat. There was a real danger there, and the goal was to just get to it and take care of business,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards said when a suspect threw a lit device into the crowd, there was only one option: move toward danger<br \/>\n<br \/>Federal prosecutors said two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, traveled from Pennsylvania, bringing the improvised explosive devices to the protest<br \/>\n<br \/>Balat and Kayumi remain in federal custody and are set to appear in court next month, according to officials<\/p>\n<p>Edward says when a suspect threw a lit device into the crowd, there was only one option: move toward danger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t have time to process anything. I saw the device hit the floor, and I just ran,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew that I needed to save lives, so I ran toward the people to make sure nobody got hurt,\u201d Sergeant Luis Navarro said.<\/p>\n<p>The lit device was mere feet from the men.<\/p>\n<p>Navarro said that when the device hit the ground, years of training immediately took over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything that I\u2019ve learned in my whole career culminated in that moment,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors say two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, traveled from Pennsylvania, bringing the improvised explosive devices to the protest.<\/p>\n<p>According to the police, the botched attack had the potential to cause serious harm if it detonated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is New York City. We\u2019re always on high-alert, but to actually see it, feel it, hear it, it\u2019s completely different [from] anything I\u2019ve ever experienced,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n<p>As the pictures of Edwards clearing the barricade spread online, his wife sent him a text.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt said, \u2018Wrong way, sir,\u2019\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n<p>But the police chief said the focus of the picture shouldn\u2019t be on him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want it to be about the day. I want it to be about what we did,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n<p>Balat and Kayumi remain in federal custody and are set to appear in court next month, according to officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By now, the picture of NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards, mid-stride, clearing a barricade while chasing down suspects during&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[387,25,388,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,308,27,200],"class_list":["post-161191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-louis-finley","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161191","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=161191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}