Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning. On Saturday, a protest was held outside Gracie Mansion, where I live with my wife, Rama. Neither of us were home at the time. This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled, "Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City." I'm the first Muslim mayor of our 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. While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen. Ours is a free society where the right to peaceful protest is sacred. It does not belong only to those we agree with. It belongs to everyone. I will defend that right every day that I am mayor, even when those protesting say things that I abhor.
Let me also be clear about something else. New York City will never tolerate violence, whether from protests or counter protests. Many of the counter protesters met this display of bigotry peacefully, with a vision of a city that is welcoming to all. But a few did not. Two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City. They are suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism. There is a video of these two individuals throwing two devices towards the protest. The Police Department has determined that these were improvised explosive devices made to injure, maim or worse. Thanks to the swift and decisive actions of NYPD officers at the scene, both men were immediately taken into custody, and the devices they brought taken off of our streets.
I want to commend the officers who were on site. They faced a chaotic situation that very quickly could have become far more dangerous. NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards and Sergeant Luis Navarro ran towards the danger so that others could run to safety. They are here with us now, and I want to thank them today publicly, as I did yesterday, privately, and to thank the dozens of other officers who responded without hesitation. That is courage, that is selflessness, and I am deeply grateful to both of them and to every member of the NYPD who works every single day to keep New Yorkers safe.
As the NYPD continued their investigation yesterday, they found a third suspicious device in a vehicle on East End, between 81st and 82nd Street. Out of an abundance of caution, they conducted a number of limited evacuations of nearby buildings before removing the device from the area. Once the device was removed, those evacuated were allowed to return to their homes. I am grateful for their continued work to keep New Yorkers safe. Let me say this plainly. Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law. As this case continues to develop, I will remain in close contact and communication with our police commissioner. I want to say thank you once again to everyone who acted on Saturday to protect their fellow New Yorkers and to uphold the values of this city.
Now I would like to invite Police Commissioner to say a few words.
Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch: Thank you, mayor. Good morning, everyone. First, I will tell you that we are not at liberty to discuss many aspects of the ongoing investigation at this time, due to the pending prosecution. The suspects here, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, are going to be prosecuted in federal court here in Manhattan, and a complaint will set forth criminal charges and the factual allegations supporting those charges. After that complaint is made public, which I expect to occur later today, I will be able to say much more about the investigation and what we have learned in this case. But it is crucial that we respect that process and not get ahead of it. That being said, I can confirm this morning that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.
I can also provide some additional information, building on my remarks from Saturday evening. At that time, we were beginning to conduct preliminary analysis of two devices that were ignited and deployed earlier that day. One in a cross walk on East End Avenue and East 87th Street, and the other on the west side of East End Avenue, between East 86th and East 87th streets. That testing was performed by the NYPD bomb squad and FBI Special Agent bomb technicians in consultation with an FBI chemist. Preliminary test results determined that these were not hoax devices nor smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices that could have caused serious injury or death. Part of our initial investigation was to determine what energetic substance, if any, was used in the two devices. And our analysis showed that one of the devices deployed by the subjects contained the substance triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP.
Now, TATP is a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world. Our bomb squad then rendered safe both devices. And as of now, explosive evidence samples are being sent to an FBI lab for further testing. Our investigation also led our detectives to a vehicle that was tied to the suspects, and yesterday afternoon, patrol officers found that car - a black 2010 Honda with New Jersey plates on East End Avenue between East 81st Street and East 82nd Street. Using a robot, the NYPD bomb squad was able to find another possible suspicious device and materials inside the car consistent with the first two explosive devices, and the area was immediately frozen and cleared. A limited evacuation of certain floors and certain nearby buildings was conducted while the officers secured the vehicle and removed this third device, which was transported to Rodman's neck for further testing.
This third device tested negative for explosive material. Once the scene was secure and deemed safe, residents were allowed to return to their homes. Now we have been in a heightened state of alert in New York City since the start of hostilities in Iran, and we remain in that posture. Today, we will continue to deploy additional counterterrorism resources throughout New York City, including heavy weapons teams, canine units, aviation and more. The NYPD is vigilant and determined in our unceasing efforts to ensure the safety of this city and the security of its eight and a half million residents. We also cannot lose sight of how serious the situation was. The last time that an IED targeting people was deployed in New York City was in 2017 when Akayed Ullah detonated a device strapped to his torso in the pedestrian underpass connecting the Port Authority bus terminal and the Times Square subway station. No one other than the attacker was injured in that incident, and once again, we were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing.
But luck is never a strategy. Devices like these have the potential to cause devastating harm, which is why the NYPD does thorough counterterrorism investigations and treats every incident of this kind with the highest level of urgency and care, and it is why we remain vigilant. The safety and security of the entire city ultimately rests on the judgment and the courage of the men and women of the NYPD and on Saturday, we saw that in its truest form. When those devices were ignited in the middle of a crowded protest, officers did not step back. They stepped forward. With me today are two of those officers, Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards and Sergeant Luis Navarro, who ran toward a lit IED without hesitation and without regard for their own safety. Acting as police officers do on instinct and training to protect people they did not know and would likely never meet.
Moments like that remind us [of] what policing truly requires. Because behind every counter terrorism operation, every bomb squad response, every emergency call that sends officers running towards danger, there are human beings who make the decision to step forward when others are running away. Chief Edwards has been a uniform officer for nearly 23 years. He is, as of December, our newly minted borough chief in Manhattan, North. Chief Edwards joined this department after witnessing the heroism of NYPD officers on September 11, and on Saturday, we saw that same spirit carried forward in the way that he responded.
Sergeant Navarro has spent the past 11 years serving the city. He grew up between Puerto Rico and New York, eventually settling in Washington Heights in the Bronx, and joined the NYPD after a close friend encouraged him to take the exam. On Saturday, he and Chief Edwards responded with a calm judgment and professionalism that situations like this demand. Together, they represent the dozens of cops who are safeguarding that protest Saturday afternoon and the nearly 35,000 members of this department who stand watch over New York City every day. Our entire city owes all of them a debt of gratitude. And although I've said it to them many times already, I will never tire of it. Thank you for your service. We'll now take some questions.
Question: I know you can't really go into so much detail at this point. But you know, given that you are saying, this is an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism or being investigated. Can you just give us any sense as to what information you may have to indicate that this is possibly ISIS inspired? Also, the commissioner mentioned the heightened state of alert related to the war in Iran, any indication at this point that there's a connection? And then just also, do you know why they wanted to come to New York and this protest in particular?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll pass this over to our commissioner to answer some of the specifics.
Police Commissioner Tisch: So, Jake, at this time, we do not have any information that connects this investigation to what's going on overseas in Iran. As to the other questions that you posed, I don't want to say anything that could introduce prejudice into the prosecution or do anything that will make the prosecutor's jobs more difficult. What I can say is that the complaint I expect will be unsealed later this afternoon, and once that happens, I will be at greater liberty to discuss and answer the questions that you pose.
Question: Mayor, you said you were not home at the time of this incident. Can you tell us where you were, how you learned about this incident, and what went into your thought process about why you didn't speak about this publicly, either on Saturday, when the commissioner did, or on Sunday.
Mayor Mamdani: So, we had known that this was a protest that was scheduled for over a week, and I had known that there were precautions being taken, and I'm incredibly appreciative of the work that the NYPD both did in advance, as well as the work that we've spoken about having happened on the day and since then. My wife and I were at the New York City Sign Museum in Brooklyn at the time. We continued to be kept up to date as to what was going on, both in the midst of the protest, in the aftermath of the protest. And we also wanted to ensure that we were able to address New Yorkers directly and clearly with all the facts as we had them, especially given how fast-moving this has been, [we] wanted to ensure that we had all that together.
Question: [I'm] wondering if, prior to the protest, there was any credible threats online from these individuals, anything that you could see from their social media presence, anything like that leading up to it, that you'd know that they'd be traveling from Pennsylvania to attend this.
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, Intelligence and Counterterrorism, Police Department: Again, preliminary investigation, and you're going to learn a lot more as the complaint is unsealed, but nothing at this time that would have suggested that.
Question: Has the team finished going through the devices of the two men associated and also, is there anything known about a possible third individual who is with them?
Deputy Commissioner Weiner: Those devices are currently being investigated, so that process is ongoing, and we have no information about a possible third individual with them at this time.
