Name: ISIS-inspired act of terrorism probed after bombs deployed outside NYC mayor's home
Uploaded: 2026-03-09T23:01:53.000Z
Duration: 4 min 40 s
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The NYPD says it's investigating an attack in Manhattan as a possible ISIS inspired terror act.

Investigators say anti Muslim protests outside the mayor's residence were underway when counter protesters brought two explosive devices.

Now, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says the department is doing everything it can to keep New Yorkers safe.

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.

The NYPD does thorough counterterrorism investigations and treats every incident of this kind with the highest level of urgency and care.

ABC chief investigative correspondent Erin Katerski has the details.

So, commissioner mentioned a third device was also found.

That device, the third one, was found in a car that the suspects were believed to have driven from Bucks County, Pennsylvania into New York City over the weekend.

That third device did not test positive for explosives the way the other two did, according to the police commissioner.

But all three have now been sent to the FBI lab at Quantico for additional testing while the two men are expecting to face federal charges, possibly terrorism charges.

Because we heard the police commissioner say today that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS inspired terrorism.

Because according to our sources, the two men said they had watched ISIS propaganda videos.

That may be where they got the instructions for how to build the devices.

And these are two men now in custody in Pennsylvania.

They came to this protest that was staged by a January 6th there actually named Jake Lang.

And it was an ugly protest against Muslims with a pig roast in Ramadan.

There were counter protesters, many of them peaceful.

But then according to the police, these two guys show up and toss at least one of these devices.

At first it was thought they were smoke bombs, but

you heard the police commissioner say they were not smoke bombs.

They were potentially viable improvised explosives.

It sounds like this was just a lucky thing that they didn't go off.

And the police commissioner said luck is not a strategy.

But it does underscore the concerning times that we're living in and what counterterrorism officials have been telling us and what we've been discussing since the US Israel strike on Iran, that it could awaken people or inspire people to do things.

And in this case, as alleged, a couple of guys from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, were able to drive into New York City, get close to the mayor's residence with what turned out to be potentially viable explosive devices.

All right, chief investigative correspondent Erin Katerski.

And I want to bring back ABC's contributor, former Homeland Security official Elizabeth Newman, for more on that.

So what do you make of this incident in New York, and

how does it factor into the heightened threat environment that we've been talking about related to the war with Iran?

I think it's important to remember that ISIS is still alive and active and actively recruiting people online.

We had a number of incidents over the last two to three years, a lot of which occurred overseas.

But probably the most notorious one was the New Orleans attack on New Year's Day last year.

That was somebody that was radicalized online, inspired by isis.

They have adapted their tools and are quite good at recruiting people and suggesting that they need to do something violent in order to promote the cause.

And I think the other thing that is nicely demonstrated in an incident like this is how easy it is for people to get the instructions online to be able to build simple explosive devices that could cause a lot of harm.

Thankfully, these did not appear to cause great damage, but

that is something that law enforcement is constantly battling.

And it really doesn't matter what the ideological driver is.

Whether it's ISIS or far right or far left, these instructions are circulating online.

And if some decides that they want to do something, it's not too hard for them to figure out how to put those IEDs together.

And it is a huge challenge for law enforcement to protect against that lone actor who's radicalizing quickly online and decides to show up at that protest.