Pennsylvania teenagers plead not guilty in Gracie Mansion bomb plot

Two Pennsylvania teenagers were arraigned in Manhattan federal court after prosecutors said they drove to New York City with an ISIS-inspired bomb plot that came close to the mayor’s official residence. Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism and weapons charges before U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick.

Authorities say the alleged plan moved beyond online ideology and into the physical steps of an attack. Prosecutors say Balat and Kayumi traveled from eastern Pennsylvania to Manhattan on March 7, 2026, and attempted to detonate two improvised explosive devices outside Gracie Mansion, where a protest and counter-protest were underway. The devices, according to the indictment, contained shrapnel and triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, a highly unstable explosive. Officials say the men had also considered other targets before settling on the area around the mayor’s residence.

Investigators say they later recovered a notebook with attack plans, a storage unit with bomb-making materials and explosive residue, and dashcam footage in which the defendants were allegedly discussing the attack. Prosecutors allege the pair moved from planning to execution with enough detail that law enforcement had to intervene before anyone was killed or seriously injured. The Justice Department says the indictment includes eight counts, among them conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.

The danger did not end when the first devices were found. Officials said a third suspicious device was later discovered on March 8 in a parked vehicle a few blocks from Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side, near East End Avenue and East 87th Street. Law enforcement recovered a coiled green material consistent with hobby fuse, along with an empty metal can and other materials, prompting limited evacuations and a bomb-squad response. Prosecutors said the vehicle was registered to a family member of Balat.

The case now moves into the court process, but it already offers a stark warning about how extremist narratives can travel from screens to streets. The confrontation outside Gracie Mansion unfolded amid dueling protests, one called Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer, and the other called Run Nazis Out of New York City. What prosecutors describe is a pathway from radicalization to attempted action that put protesters, neighbors and police in immediate danger in the heart of New York City.