We’re starting to get a lot more detailed information about the pair of adult teenagers who tossed a pair of bombs outside Gracie Mansion in New York City last week. Their names are Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi. Balat, the man who threw the bombs, is a high school senior (age 18) and Kayumi is a recent high school graduate (age 19). According to Balat’s attorney the two didn’t know each other.
A lawyer for Emir Balat, the high school student who was caught on video lighting a homemade bomb and tossing it toward the demonstrators, said he thought the two men did not know each other before last weekend. “They’re strangers, as far as I know,” the lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said.
Mr. Balat, 18, is a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Pa., where he has attended remotely since September, the school confirmed. Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, the other man arrested, graduated from Council Rock North High School in Newtown, Pa., in 2024.
That’s the claim, but it seems pretty unlikely that two kids from Pennsylvania who lived four miles apart from one another both wound up in New York City throwing bombs together that morning.
The real details appear in the criminal complaint presented by the FBI. After he was apprehended at the scene, Balat started talking in the squad car on his way to the station.
BALAT, without being questioned by the NYPD officers transporting him, made the following spontaneous utterances, in part and as captured on the transporting NYPD officers’ body-worn camera footage: “this isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet…We take action! We take action!”; and “if I didn’t do it somebody else will come and do it.”
Once he was in the police precinct, Balat waived his Miranda rights and asked for a piece of paper. He then wrote this statement:
All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu kuffar! Emir B.
The FBI agent mentions that “Die in your rage” is an ISIS slogan based on a verse in the Koran. When asked by officers if he was familiar with the Boston Marathon bombing, Balat said he wanted his attack to be bigger because only 3 people had died in the Boston attack.
As for Kayumi, when he was being placed into a police car at the scene, someone in the crowd asked him why he’d done it. He replied, “ISIS.” At the precinct, Kayumi also waived his Miranda rights and told police he had watched ISIS videos on his phone and that he had been inspired by ISIS.
The bombs were made of metal cans filled with an explosive called TAPT and a fuse. It was also wrapped with nuts and bolts which would have created shrapnel if the devices had gone off. Today video of Balat buying a role of fuses at a fireworks shop in Pennsylvania were released.
VIDEO: New York City bomb suspect, 18-year-old Muslim Emir Balat, can be observed purchasing a 20-foot roll of safety fuse from Phantom Fireworks in Penndel, Pennsylvania, on March 2.
Authorities say Balat allegedly carried out an ISIS-inspired terror attack on Saturday at an… pic.twitter.com/G1csA79ZGM
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 10, 2026
The day after the terror attack by ISIS inspired Muslim extremists, Mamdani and his Hamas-supporting wife had dinner with Columbia University Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil.
For Mahmoud Khalil, this past year has been marked by profound hardship—and by profound courage.
A year ago, Mahmoud was walking home through our city after sharing an iftar with his wife Noor when he was detained by federal agents, flown to Louisiana, and then held in an ICE… pic.twitter.com/6dBtLh0GeT
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 10, 2026
Birds of a feather.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Hot Air’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
