The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has said that an “improvised explosive device” was thrown during a protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home, with two men taken into custody.
The statement on Sunday came a day after the incident outside the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, where far-right, anti-Muslim demonstrators, led by activist Jake Lang, clashed with counterprotesters.
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NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said a preliminary analysis has found that the item thrown by a man at the protest was “not a hoax device or a smoke bomb”.
“It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” she said, adding that further analysis would be conducted on the device, as well as a second device left near the scene.
Tisch said that two men, identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested at the scene. The FBI has also joined the investigation.
Police had earlier said that Balat was among a group of counterprotesters when he threw the smoking device at a barrier near police. It did not explode.
The device contained nuts, bolts and screws, as well as a so-called “hobby fuse”, according to police.
Balat dropped a second device in the street as he fled, police said.
In a statement on Sunday, Mamdani condemned Lang’s protest, but said the following violence was “even more disturbing”.
“Violence at a protest is never acceptable,” he said.
“The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”
Lang, a far-right activist who was arrested for storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and pardoned by President Donald Trump last year, called Saturday’s protest in opposition to what he has described as the “Islamification” of New York City.
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Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor of the city, which is estimated to be home to up to 1 million Muslims.
In his statement, the mayor described Lang as a “white supremacist”, adding that “such hate has no place in New York City”.
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