(Bloomberg) — A device ignited and thrown during unrest outside the residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday was an improvised explosive device that could have caused “serious injury or death,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
“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,” Tisch said in a statement posted on X Sunday, adding that two individuals connected to the device are in police custody. “It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”
Authorities on Saturday arrested six people connected to the broader unrest during an anti-Muslim protest outside the residence, which prompted a bomb-squad response and a terrorism investigation. Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor.
The incident began around around 11 a.m. near East End Avenue and East 87th Street, where an anti-Muslim demonstration organized by conservative influencer Jake Lang drew about 20 participants. A nearby counter-protest against Lang’s group attracted roughly 125 people at its peak.
Authorities said an 18-year-old man threw an ignited device toward the protest area. Witnesses reported flames and spokes before that device struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police. The man then allegedly obtained a second device from a 19-year-old, lit it and dropped it alond East End Avenue before being taken into custody.
Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were among those arrested yesterday and remain detained in connection to the devices, Tisch said, without specifying what acts they were accused of. They appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape with nuts, bolts and screws attached and fitted with hobby fuses, police have said. Further analysis will be conducted, including a second device.
The commiossioner told reporters on Saturday she didn’t believe Mamdani or the first lady, Rama Duwaji, were at home at the time. The NYPD is working with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI through the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are,” Mandani said in a statement Sunday, thanking the police and that he remains in close contact with Tisch about the situation.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com