Device Thrown at Protest Was an Explosive: NYPD

A device thrown by a counterprotester at an anti-Islam demonstration in New York City on Saturday was an improvised explosive, police said a preliminary analysis shows, per the AP. Two people are in custody after two small devices were lit near the official residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani during the demonstrations. No one was hurt, NBC News reports. Tensions spiked around midday at the rally led by right-wing influencer Jake Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, that drew counterprotesters. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted Sunday that object was "an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death." It extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch wrote.

One Lang supporter was arrested after being accused of pepper-spraying counterprotesters, per NBC. Soon after, an 18-year-old counterprotester ignited and threw the device toward the protest area, police said, then lit a second one and dropped it nearby. Both he and a 19-year-old man were detained; no charges had been filed as of Saturday evening. The devices were described as smoking, jar-like objects wrapped in tape with metal hardware and a fuse, filled with bolts and screws, per the New York Times. The response included K-9 sweeps and FBI terrorism task force involvement. Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, was inside the residence at the time; his office called the protest "despicable and Islamophobic."