{"id":189373,"date":"2026-04-08T09:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189373\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:53:16","slug":"dashcam-recorded-2-mens-plot-to-use-bombs-at-new-york-city-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189373\/","title":{"rendered":"Dashcam recorded 2 men’s plot to use bombs at New York City protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest<\/a> 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<\/a> 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 \u201cthe 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<\/a> 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<\/a> 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

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\u2019t clear from the indictment whether the men were aware they were being recorded by the vehicle\u2019s 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 (AP) \u2014 The two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7080,3423,417,64887,415,65202,64663,56844,75,9,24,55,54,56,6657,3909,7703,3694,421,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-189373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-bombings","9":"tag-domestic-news","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-ibrahim-kayumi","12":"tag-indictments","13":"tag-islamic-state-group","14":"tag-jake-lang","15":"tag-james-c-barnacle-jr","16":"tag-manhattan","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","20":"tag-new-york-city-news","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-pa-state-wire","23":"tag-pennsylvania","24":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","25":"tag-terrorism","26":"tag-u-s-news","27":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189373","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=189373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}