{"id":161884,"date":"2026-03-12T22:58:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161884\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:58:48","slug":"nypd-chief-talks-botched-bombing-at-gracie-mansion-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161884\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD chief talks botched bombing at Gracie Mansion protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYPD Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards never thought a protest outside Gracie Mansion would turn into a life-or-death moment. But when a suspect sought to set off a homemade explosive device<\/a>\u00a0Saturday, Edwards said there was only one choice: run toward the danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, just, instincts kick in. And my goal was to go after the suspect, and really nothing was going to stand in the way,\u201d Edwards said during an appearance on \u201cMornings On 1\u201d Thursday.<\/p>\n

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

During an appearance on “Mornings On 1,”\u00a0NYPD Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards recalled jumping into action when a suspect sought to set off a homemade explosive device during a protest and counterprotest outside Gracie Mansion
\n
A widely shared photo shows Edwards mid-stride, clearing a barricade while chasing one of the suspects. He and fellow officer Sgt. Luis Navarro\u00a0have been praised as heroes\u00a0for their quick responses
\n
Federal prosecutors say two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, traveled from Pennsylvania with the improvised explosive devices. Both\u00a0remain in federal custody\u00a0and are scheduled to appear in court next month<\/p>\n

A widely shared photo shows Edwards mid-stride, clearing a barricade while chasing one of the suspects. He and fellow officer Sgt. Luis Navarro have been praised as heroes<\/a> for their quick responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the suspect. There was an opportunity to catch him. I began to pursue. I knew I had other officers that could help me out once we got close. And then Sergeant Luis Navarro, he began to clear out anyone that was in the area of that device,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

He added that he was shocked by the events that unfolded afterwards, saying, \u201cThere was no indication that we would be dealing with something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his rank, Edwards said he believes it is important to be alongside other NYPD members on the front lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy leadership style is, any major event, I want to be out there. I want to be boots-on-the-ground and see what’s going on and get a real feel for myself what’s happening. And if I see something, I’m going to take action,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this particular case, there’s no time to delegate. There was no time to point. We’re all cops at heart, and we just go do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said the experience has heightened his awareness for future events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s very natural. You’re going to feel and be at a higher sense of alert,” he said. “You’re going to be watching a little closer, especially in the near-term, any events that\u2019s coming up, we got to have a little more resources out there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors say two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, traveled from Pennsylvania with the improvised explosive devices. Both remain in federal custody<\/a> and are scheduled to appear in court next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NYPD Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards never thought a protest outside Gracie Mansion would turn into a life-or-death moment.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2274,387,25,75,84,83,2275,9,24,12,63,308,1103,27,200],"class_list":["post-161884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-mornings-on-1","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-mornings-on-1","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-spectrum-news-ny1","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161884","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=161884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}