The two men arrested Saturday in the bombing of a demonstration in New York City apparently did not bother to invoke their right to remain silent.
In fact, they did everything but.
submit Monday, which included details picked up by police body cameras as 18-year-old Emir Balat was taken to a police station, makes it clear that Islamic terrorism was behind the attempted atrocity.
“This is not a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet,” Balat said in a recorded moment, according to a prosecutorial complaint filed in the Southern District of New York.
“We’re taking action! We’re taking action!”
In Balat’s case, that “action,” according to authorities, meant building and hurling explosives for the express purpose of killing those participating in a protest outside the Gracie Mansion home of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the the city’s first Muslim mayor.
According to the complaint, the protest was called “Stop Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop Muslim Public Prayer in New York City.”
That provoked a counter-protest: “Run the Nazis out of New York City,” the complaint said.
Shortly after noon, a person, now identified as Balat, set the fire on fire and threw what turned out to be a bomb at the anti-Islam protesters. He then received another device, also a bomb, from another man, now identified as his accomplice, 19-year-old Ibraham Kayumi, according to the complaint.
Balat lit that bomb and dropped it near police officers who were approaching. He then fled, but was arrested almost immediately.
These are by far the clearest images we’ve ever seen of the man who lit the bomb, dropped it at an officer’s feet and fled.
It happens so quickly that it’s hard to see, so I slowed down the footage and added arrows so you can see it.
He literally drops it RIGHT AT an officer’s feet. pic.twitter.com/y5nMNh7ibK
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) March 9, 2026
Kayumi was also quickly arrested. According to the complaint, he was asked by someone in the crowd why he had been part of the attack and he replied: “ISIS.”
Once at the police station, Balat made the motivation of the attack even clearer. Equipped with paper and pen, he had pledged his allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State.
“All praise is due to Allah, the lord of all the worlds,” he wrote, according to the complaint. ‘I pledge my allegiance [sic] to the Islamic State. Die in your rage, yu [sic] kuffar!”
The complaint noted that “kuffar” is a term for non-Muslim, and “die in your anger” is an Islamic State slogan based on a verse from the Quran, the Islamic scripture.
In addition to his Islamist-terrorist motivation, Balat made it clear that his goal was mass murder.
When interrogators asked Balat if he was trying to do something like the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, in which two Muslim brothers detonated explosives near the event’s finish line, Balat confirmed that was the case.
That attack caused three fatalities left hundreds injured.
One of the bombing brothers died during a shootout with police. The other one is on federal death row.
“No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to the complaint. “It was only three deaths.”
According to CBS NewsBalat and Kayumi are both accused of attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS, use of a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.
Both men are from homes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Philadelphia.
Balat’s family is of Turkish descent and his parents became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2017, according to CBS News. Kayumi’s parents are from Afghanistan and naturalized as Americans in 2004 and 2009, the newspaper reports.
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal.
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