Explosives thrown near New York City mayor's residence investigated as 'ISIS-related terrorism'

NEW YORK — Two men suspected of bringing explosives to a protest outside New York City’s mayoral mansion were in custody Monday, as authorities probed whether the suspects were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, the police commissioner said.

No charges had yet been brought against the men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Nikk, but federal prosecutors and police planned a news conference later in the day. In the meantime, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a morning news conference that the explosives episode “is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, police searched a home in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Middletown Township, and a separate federal investigation was underway in nearby Newtown, local police said. Both inquiries were related to the incident outside New York’s mayoral residence, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, wrote in a social media post Sunday.

The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islamic 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. Mamdani and his wife weren’t at the house, called Gracie Mansion, at the time.

Speaking outside the residence Monday morning, Mamdani said Balat and Nikk “traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether 18-year-old Balat or 19-year-old Nikk have attorneys who can speak to the accusations. Attempts to reach their families were not immediately successful.

Tisch said there are no indications that the men’s alleged activities were connected to the ongoing war in Iran. She declined to say more about why authorities believe the suspects were motivated by the Islamic State group, a Sunni extremist group. Iran’s population is almost entirely Shiite, the other main religious community within Islam.

While Mamdani and Tisch briefed reporters Monday, Lang heckled from outside the Gracie Mansion gates.

Lang’s sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators, including one person who police say tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws and a “hobby fuse” into the crowd.

The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch noted. The same person who threw it then dropped a second device that did not appear to ignite, the commissioner said.

The scene had grown chaotic even before the devices were thrown. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam protest, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after pepper-spraying counterprotesters. A message seeking comment was left for an attorney for McGinnis.

Three others were taken into custody but were released without charges.

After the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes. He was later freed from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away.