ISIS-inspired suspects who threw explosive devices near Gracie Mansion wanted to cause more damage than Boston Marathon, NYPD says
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NEW YORK — The Gracie Mansion counterprotesters accused of throwing homemade bombs came to New York with a powerful powder explosive nicknamed “Mother of Satan,” a notebook filled with handwritten notes — and a plan to go “bigger” than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Ibraham Kayumi, 19, and Emir Balat, 18, were radicalized by ISIS and bent on destruction when they arrived at an “Americans Against Islamification” protest staged by Jan. 6 rioter and right-wing provocateur Jake Lang Saturday afternoon, police and the feds allege. The teens live in Pennsylvania.
The duo had two devices ready to go with a third left behind in their car, police and federal prosecutors said. Bayat allegedly lit and hurled a duct-tape-wrapped mason jar with a fuse and triacetone triperoxide, the hallmark explosive seen in bombings around the world, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Monday press conference at Gracie Mansion.
The device landed near Lang, members of his group and a nearby Daily News reporter covering the protest, but didn’t explode. Kayumi handed Bayat a second device, but Bayat dropped it as he tried to run off, Tisch said.
After his arrest, when law enforcement agents asked Balat if he had hoped to accomplish something akin to the Boston Marathon bombing, he replied, “No, even bigger. It was only three deaths.”
The teens were hit with a slew of charges Monday including use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
According to federal prosecutors, Balat wrote on a piece of paper after his arrest a misspelled message that he “pledge allegience to the Islamic State.” Kayumi meanwhile allegedly told investigators he was affiliated with ISIS and watched the terror group’s propaganda on his phone.
As Kayumi was being placed inside an NYPD vehicle at the protest scene, a bystander yelled asking him why he did it. “ISIS,” Kayumi responded, according to the feds. The exchange was caught on an NYPD cop’s body-worn camera, according to court papers.
Inside the cop car, Balat spontaneously offered an explanation for his actions, the feds say. “This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet,” he said, according to a federal criminal complaint. “We take action! We take action!”
“If I didn’t do it, someone else will come and do it,” he allegedly added.
After he was taken to a local NYPD stationhouse and waived his Miranda rights, Balat asked for a piece of paper and wrote, “All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegience to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu (sic) kuffar! Emir B.”
The complaint states “kuffar” refers to “non-believers” or “infidels,” and “Die in your rage” is an ISIS slogan based on a verse in the Quran.
The homemade explosives were packed with nails, bolts and triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. That substance, known informally as “Mother of Satan,” is easy to make and has been a hallmark of various suicide bomb attacks.
A third device found in the suspects’ car on East End Avenue Sunday was not an explosive, Tisch said.
Kayumi told investigators he hadn’t felt comfortable holding the devices and wouldn’t feel comfortable if they were in the interrogation room with him, according to the feds.
Both teens wore white hazmat suits and handcuffs connected to a chain around their waists and appeared nervous at their Manhattan Federal Court arraignment Monday.
A shell-shocked Balat stared down and ahead with an unfocused unblinking expression. Kayumi, who appeared to giggle nervously at one point, kept looking over at Balat, but Balat didn’t look back. Kayumi then appeared to sheepishly shrink in his chair.
Magistrate Judge Gary Stein ordered both held without bail, with a preliminary hearing tentatively set for April 8.
Outside the courtroom, Balat’s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said the two suspects and their families don’t know each other and they’re from different towns and schools.
Balat lives in Langhorne, Pa., while Kayumi lives in nearby Newtown Township, according to police sources.
Balat turned 18 two months ago and is just three classes away from graduating high school.
“When I say there is a lot to figure out about this young man, I mean it,” he said, describing Balat’s famaily as “just good, hardworking, decent people who have no idea how this could be happening.”
The lawyer said he didn’t let Balat know how much time he faces if convicted because “I didn’t want to scare him too much today.”
The duo face a possible life sentence if convicted of use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Balat had a Pennsylvania driver’s license and the parked car, which had New Jersey plates, was registered to one of his relatives, according to the criminal complaint. A license plate reader showed the vehicle crossed the George Washington Bridge into New York less than an hour before the botched bombing, the feds said.
Kayumi’s mother filed a missing person report at some point Saturday, saying she last saw her son at their Pennsylvania home around 10:30 a.m., the complaint says.
Inside the car, investigators found a coiled green material that appeared to be another hobby fuse and an empty metal can similar to the one inside the thrown IED, according to the feds.
Authorities also found a notebook with handwritten notes including the words, “TATP explosive, a list of chemical ingredients including “hydrogen peroxide,” “sulfuric acid,” and “acetone,” and a separate list of components and quantities, like “aluminum can x6,” and “a box of bolts ect (sic) 2x,” the complaint says.
Tisch noted that the last time an IED was used in the city was in 2017, when Akayed Ullah detonated a botched pipe bomb in a subway tunnel underneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Ullah is now serving life in prison.
“We were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing,” Tisch said.
“But luck is never a strategy. Devices like this have the potential to cause devastating harm, which is why the NYPD does counterterrorism investigations and treats every incident of its kind with the highest level of urgency — and it is why we remain vigilant.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was at a museum in Brooklyn with his wife when the incident happened, said that while the city will not tolerate violence he will never waver in his support of any group, no matter the rhetoric, to protest.
“This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled ‘Stop the Muslim Takeover of New York City,'” Mamdani said. “I’m the first Muslim mayor of New York City. Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me nor is it anything new for the 1 million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home.”
Regarding the suspects, he said in a statement, “Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have been charged with committing a heinous act of terrorism and proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS. They should be held fully accountable for their actions. We will continue to keep New Yorkers safe. We will not tolerate terrorism or violence in our city.”
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