The FBI has arrested two people for throwing an explosive device at New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani’s Gracie Mansion during a raucous protest over the weekend. Both people arrested are children of immigrants.
An anti-Islam protest was organized by people associated with Jake Lange, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter and far-right influencer, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters on Saturday. A group of counter-protesters, numbering more than 100 people, also gathered, and two young men from Pennsylvania, angered by the anti-Islam protest, brought homemade bombs to the rally, intending to cause damage, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
Both individuals were identified as 18-year-old Amir Balat, from Pennsylvania, and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kiyomi. Balat’s parents were born in Türkiye and became US citizens in 2017. Balat is an American citizen and lives with his family in a large two-story house in Pennsylvania. A woman at the residence confirmed to CBS Philadelphia that Balat lives in the home.Kayumi’s parents are originally from Afghanistan. They became naturalized US citizens in 2004 and 2009.
It was not clear whether Kayumi was living with them at the time of the incident on Saturday.Investigators were looking into Balat and Kiyomi’s travel abroad. He left the US court for several months and traveled to Istanbul from May 6 to August 26, 2025. He most recently returned to the United States from Türkiye in January of this year. Meanwhile, Kayumi traveled to Istanbul for several weeks in July and August 2024 and to Saudi Arabia in late March of that year.The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force took the lead and began a terrorism investigation. Search warrants are expected to be executed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, sources told CBS News.In a statement issued Sunday, Mamdani specifically mentioned Lange and said the protest outside Gracie Mansion was “rooted in bigotry and racism” and had no place in New York City.“It is an affront to the values of our city and the unity that defines our identity,” he said.The names of the two men who were arrested for the explosive devices were not mentioned. Instead, he said: “Attempting to use an explosive device and harm others is not only a criminal offense, but it is reprehensible and contradictory to our identity.”
