An improvised device thrown at Jan. 6 rioter Jake Langan at an anti-Muslim protest he organized outside Gracie Mansion was an actual explosive that could have caused carnage, police said Sunday.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were arrested in connection with the device at Saturday’s chaotic rally, which saw clashes between Lang and counter-protestors outside the Upper East Side mayoral residence of Mayor Mamdani.
“The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a social media post Sunday. “It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”
Tisch added that investigators are continuing to analyze a second device.
In his own social media post Sunday, Mamdani blasted Lang’s protest, calling it “rooted in bigotry and racism,” but said the counterprotesters actions were even worse.
“Such hate has no place in New York City,” he said of Lang’s rally. “It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are. What followed was even more disturbing. Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”
Mamdani went on to thank “the brave men and women of the NYPD who acted quickly to keep New Yorkers safe.”
Lang’s anti-Muslim protest, which was called “Americans Against Islamification” and advertised with a poster portraying soldiers in armor evoking the Crusades — a series of wars started by Christianity to wrest control of Jerusalem from Muslim control a millennia ago.
His 20 or so protestors drew a counter-protest, and chaos ensued. Balat threw a homemade device at about 12:38 p.m. at Lang and his group at the corner of E. 87th St. and East End Ave., and it gave off flames and smoke but didn’t explode, Tisch told reporters Saturday.
Balat then ran south on East End Ave. toward E. 86th St. and got a second device from Kayumi, lit it and started running with it before dropping it on the avenue’s west side near E. 86th St., Tisch said.
Police arrested both at the scene.
Tisch on Saturday described the devices as jars “a bit smaller than a football,” wrapped in black tape and packed with nuts, bolts and screws, along with a “hobby fuse” — typically used to ignite fireworks or model rockets.
The two men remained at the 26th Precinct stationhouse Sunday as members of the NYPD and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated. Charges against them were pending.
Police also arrested Ian McGinnis, 21, of Philadelphia, charging him with reckless endangerment, assault and unlawful possession of noxious matter and accusing him of using pepper spray at the protest.
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