Pennsylvania teens who plotted ISIS-inspired NYC terror attack sought to kill up to 60, feds say

Jesse Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 8, 2026

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Two Pennsylvania teenagers accused of instigating an ISIS-inspired terrorist plot outside New York’s Gracie Mansion last month watched “radical content” online and hoped to kill up to 60 people in the attack, according to new court documents.

Emir Balat, 18, of Langhorne, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, of Newtown, were charged in federal court in New York with use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to support a foreign terrorist organization, and related crimes in connection with the failed March 7 attack.

The teens timed the plot to unfold during an anti-Islam protest organized by a far-right social media influencer, prosecutors say. They drove that morning from Pennsylvania to the Manhattan mayor’s historic residence, where attendees of a gathering dubbed “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” rallied outside. There, federal authorities said, they set off two explosive devices that did not detonate.

Police arrested them within minutes and no one was injured.

The incident drew national attention to the Neshaminy and Council Rock high school students and their relatively comfortable upbringings in wealthy Philadelphia suburbs, where Balat was a budding online sneaker entrepreneur.

New details of their actions that day emerged in a federal indictment released late Tuesday by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. The document says Balat and Kayumi planned their attack for days, kept highly volatile bomb-making materials in a Langhorne storage unit, and harbored alternate plans to terrorize the nation’s largest city should their original plot fail.

“All I know is I want to start terror bro,” Kayumi told Balat as they drove to New York in a car registered to a relative of Balat’s, according to audio investigators recovered from a dashboard recording device and cited in the indictment. “I want to petrify these people.”

Balat’s defense attorney, Mehdi Essmidi, could not be immediately reached for comment. Previously, he described Balat as a “child” and said he was unaware of any connection the teen had to the Islamic State.

An attorney for Kayumi was not available.

As the two discussed their plan, the document said, Balat instructed Kayumi on how to properly light an explosive device — “just for safety,” he told him — and the teens speculated about whether air travel over New York City would be halted due to their actions.

They also discussed targeting a person at the rally — whom prosecutors did not identify — and according to the indictment, they kept watch on his social media pages as they drove into the city.

“I’m going to say 3, 2, 1 and I’m going to take it out as fast and controlled as possible,” Balat told Kayumi of the explosive device, the document said. “We light it, as soon as you see it going underhand, go in his direction, trying to aim at [the individual] and at his feet. And then run to the car. Together.”

Balat said he estimated the devices could kill eight to 16 people at once, and up to 60 in a crowded area, the indictment said.

He also told Kayumi he wanted to start “attacking police,” prosecutors said. And if the attack didn’t go as planned, they said, Balat suggested they could throw an explosive device into a nearby cafe.

Investigators later recovered a notebook from the teens’ vehicle that held even more ideas for terror, prosecutors said.

One plan involved an attack using a “load bearing” vehicle that was “large in size” and “reasonably fast,” they said. And the notebook listed alternate targets, such as festivals, parades, protests, and celebrations.

The indictment said investigators recovered explosive residue and bomb-making supplies from the Langhorne storage unit Balat and Kayumi rented days before the attack, including hydrogen peroxide — an ingredient used in highly unstable improvised explosives — as well as syringes, nuts and bolts, and a glass jar.

A note left on the floor in the center of the unit read: “All praise is due to Alah!!! [D]ie in your rage ya kuffar.”