A counterprotester hurled an improvised explosive device into a crowd at an anti-Islam rally outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence on Saturday, the city’s police commissioner said. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force joined the investigation on Sunday as police identified a second suspicious device in a parked vehicle, prompting street closures and limited building evacuations in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The confrontation unfolded at the sparsely attended “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” demonstration led by far-right activist Jake Lang, a Jan. 6 defendant who received presidential clemency last year. Two counterprotesters were taken into custody with charges pending; a person from Lang’s own group was separately arrested on charges of macing demonstrators.
The Device
One counterprotester tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws, and a “hobby fuse” into the crowd outside Gracie Mansion, police said. The city’s bomb squad determined the object was “an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a social media post Sunday.
The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch said. The same person who threw it then received a second device from another counterprotester; that device was dropped and did not appear to ignite.
Two counterprotesters were in custody, with charges still pending. Tisch said the department was working with federal prosecutors and the FBI on the case. The FBI said agents with its Joint Terrorism Task Force were participating in the investigation.
Mayor Mamdani condemned the incident in a statement Sunday. “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.”
Second Device, Street Closures
On Sunday afternoon, police said investigators had “identified a suspicious device in a vehicle on East End Avenue between 81st Street and 82nd Street.” Several streets were closed and “limited evacuations of buildings” were ordered as the bomb squad assessed the device.
Around 7 p.m., police used a flatbed truck to remove a Honda Civic from the scene. Streets were subsequently reopened.
Arrests on Both Sides
A person associated with Lang’s protest was also arrested. Police charged that individual with reckless endangerment, assault, and unlawful possession of a noxious matter after allegedly macing counterdemonstrators.
Background on Lang
Lang, a far-right activist, previously faced charges including assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder, and other crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He received clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants. Lang has since announced a run for U.S. Senate in Florida.
Earlier this year, Lang organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away.