![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775610371_768_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 The two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of New York City\u2019s mayor were recorded describing their plan to kill as many as 60 people in a bid to \u201cstart terror,\u201d according to an indictment released Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Their conversations were preserved on dashcam audio and video recordings recovered from the vehicle they drove from Pennsylvania to Manhattan ahead of the March 7 attack where prosecutors say two explosive devices were thrown. Neither exploded, and both men were quickly detained. <\/p>\n
In the recordings, Emir Balat, 18, said he wanted to target “the government\u201d and \u201ccivilians also,\u201d according to the new court filing. \u201cAll I know is I want to start terror, bro,\u201d the other passenger, 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, allegedly added.<\/p>\n
Police also recovered a notebook inside the car outlining an alternative plan for a vehicle attack on locations that included festivals, parades and celebrations, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have accused Kayumi and Balat of lighting the homemade devices \u2014 which contained the explosive TATP and shrapnel \u2014 during an anti-Islam demonstration hosted by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim to hold the office.<\/p>\n
Kayumi and Balat later told police they were inspired by ISIS, according to a federal complaint released last month. <\/p>\n
At an initial court appearance last month, Balat\u2019s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said his client had \u201ccomplicated stuff going on\u201d in his life, without elaborating. Kayumi\u2019s attorney declined to speak to reporters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From left, defense attorney Mehdi Essmidi, defendant Emir Balat, defense attorney Michael Arthus and defendant Ibrahim Kayumi wait for the start of arraignment proceedings in Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction in New York after Balat and Kayumi were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. Credit: AP\/Elizabeth Williams<\/p>\n
Neither responded to voice messages left Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
In the latest court filing, prosecutors said Balat was recorded telling Kayumi that he had \u201ccalculated\u201d the devices were \u201cgoing to kill about 8 to 16 people,\u201d or as many as 60 if the area was crowded.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, Balat warned Kayumi to throw the device as quick as possible. He then went over the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to say 3, 2, 1, and I\u2019m going to take it out as fast and controlled as possible,\u201d Balat continued, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
Balat also said he was \u201cgoing to just start attacking police,\u201d adding that he could \u201cthrow (an explosive device) in a cafe,\u201d if the initial plan did not work, the indictment said. <\/p>\n
It wasn’t clear from the indictment whether the men were aware they were being recorded by the vehicle’s dashboard camera.<\/p>\n
Both men are being held without bail on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. They were not required to enter a plea.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs alleged, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi traveled to New York City with IEDs to kill as many people as possible in an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack,\u201d FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said in a statement. \u201cThe alleged notes and instructions recovered from their vehicle demonstrate just how much cruelty they had planned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3046,9,56,63,65,64,3047],"class_list":{"0":"post-189048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-ap-a-wire","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-ny","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-nyc-headlines","13":"tag-nyc-news","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189048","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=189048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}