One of the defendants in the case of throwing explosive devices near Gracie Mansion saluted in honor of ISIS as he was led in shackles from the police precinct on Monday.Emir Balat, 18, was seen raising his right index finger and smiling at the press as he was led away by a police officer and an FBI agent.
Balat, who was wearing a black shirt and beige pants, made the gesture before one of the officers surrounding him slapped his hand.
Balat was arrested Saturday along with 19-year-old Ibrahim Kiyomi after a homemade “mother of Satan” bomb was thrown at protesters outside New York Mayor Zahran Mamdani’s residence on the Upper East Side.New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that Saturday’s incident is being treated as an attempted terrorist attack inspired by ISIS.
The couple is expected to face federal charges on Monday.Balat is accused of igniting and dropping a “Mother of Satan” homemade explosive device near police on Saturday around 12:30 p.m., according to police and sources. Police said the device consisted of a sports drink bottle filled with the volatile explosive TATP, placed inside a glass container surrounded by nuts and bolts, and would have been fatal if it had exploded.
Law enforcement sources told the newspaper that Balat used the Arabic phrase “God is great” after his interview with police.Balat, a student in the Neshaminy School District in Pennsylvania, was recorded on a police body camera after his arrest saying that when someone insults the name of the Prophet Muhammad, “we take action,” a law enforcement source said.When asked during his police interview why he carried out the failed attack, Kiyomi allegedly said he did it for ISIS, according to the sources.The two teens reportedly made pro-ISIS statements while in police custody and admitted to watching Islamic terrorism propaganda videos, federal law enforcement sources told Fox News correspondent CB Cotton.Balat, whose parents are said to be from Turkey but became naturalized citizens in 2017, reportedly grew up in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the Pennsylvania suburb of Langhorne, valued at $653,000, while his alleged friend lived in a six-bedroom, $2.25 million home near the New Jersey border.Agents were seen raiding Balat’s home after his arrest, where a “terrorist investigation” was reportedly underway.