Two men who brought explosives to a far-right protest outside New York City’s mayoral mansion said they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, according to a court complaint.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were being held without bail after a court appearance Monday on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. Their lawyers didn’t argue for bail but could do so later.
The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islam demonstration led by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the office.
“Balat and Kayumi sought to incite fear and mass suffering through this alleged attempted terror attack in the backyard of an elected city official,” James Barnacle, who runs the FBI’s New York office, said at a news conference after the brief court session.
The defendants said nothing in court, but Kayumi smirked and looked over at Balat as the judge read part of the complaint alleging they acted in support of the Islamic State group. Balat stared ahead at the defense table.
According to the complaint, Kayumi blurted out, as he was being arrested Saturday, that “ISIS” was the reason for his conduct. Balat later told authorities that he had pledged allegiance to the extremists, and Kayumi asserted that he was affiliated with the group, the complaint said.
Officers asked Balat whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded hundreds more.
“No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to the complaint.
Lawyer says he doesn’t believe the suspects knew each other
Emir Balat’s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said outside court that his client is a Philadelphia-area high school senior with “complicated stuff going on” in his personal life. “There’s a lot to figure out,” the attorney added.
Asked whether he believed Balat was a terrorist, the lawyer said: “I believe he’s 18 and he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing.”
Kayumi’s lawyer, Michael Arthus, pointed in court to the extensive publicity surrounding the case and asked that prosecutors avoid saying anything that could prejudice potential jurors.
No one answered the door at a home listed as belonging to one of Kayumi’s relatives in Newtown, Pennsylvania. At a home where neighbors said Balat lives in nearby Langhorne, a young man declined to comment when a reporter knocked on the door.
The FBI said Monday it has conducted multiple searches in connection with the investigation, including of a Pennsylvania storage unit.
A spokesperson for Neshaminy High School, located in Langhorne, confirmed that Balat is in his senior year there. He has not attended in-person classes since enrolling in the district’s virtual program this past September, according to a note sent to parents Monday by the district’s superintendent.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said neither defendant had a criminal history. Essmidi said he didn’t believe the two young men had known each other for long.
“They are not known to each other. They do not live together. They did not have friendly, family or school ties,” Essmidi said. “There is no reason to believe they knew each other prior to this incident, and I don’t know how well they knew each other at the time of this incident.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi commented on social media that authorities “will not allow ISIS’s poisonous, anti-American ideology to threaten this nation.”
No ties to Iran war, police say, as prosecutor vows ‘swift justice’
Tisch said there are no indications that the attack was connected to the ongoing war in Iran.
An automated license plate reader captured the defendants entering New York City from New Jersey less than an hour before the noontime attack, according to the complaint. Kayumi’s mother filed a missing person report, saying she last saw him around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
The men’s vehicle — registered to one of Balat’s relatives — was discovered Sunday, a few blocks from where they were arrested. A search of the car turned up a fuse, a metal can, and a list of chemical ingredients and components that could be used to build explosives, the complaint said.
Lang’s sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators. Amid the faceoff, Balat tossed a jar-sized device that contained the explosive TATP into the crowd, the complaint said. The object also contained a fuse, plus an exterior layer of duct-taped nuts and bolts, the complaint said.
The device extinguished itself steps from police officers. According to the complaint, Balat then ran down the block and collected a second, similar device — which has yet to be tested for explosives — from Kayumi. Balat dropped it near some police officers and tried to run away, the complaint said. Police tackled Balat and soon arrested him and Kayumi.
“Violence that is meant to chill free speech, violence that is meant to keep us from assembling peaceably, will be met with swift justice,” Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at a news conference Monday.
Protester arrested on unrelated charges
The scene had grown chaotic even before the devices were thrown. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam demonstration, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after he pepper-sprayed counterprotesters.
McGinnis, of Philadelphia, was released without bond after pleading not guilty Sunday to assault and aggravated harassment in a New York court, records show. His attorney, Steven Metcalf, said Monday that McGinnis was defending himself from counterprotesters.
Three others were arrested but released without charge.
Lang, who’s running for U.S. Senate in Florida, was charged with assaulting an officer and other offenses during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He was later freed from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency.
While Mamdani spoke to reporters Monday morning at the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, Lang heckled from outside the gates.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that police are now identifying one of the suspects by the name Ibrahim Kayumi, instead of Ibrahim Nikks. Earlier headlines were corrected to show Tisch referred to the possibility of the suspects being inspired by rather than related to the Islamic State group.
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Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
