Jack Long speaks out after throwing ‘suspicious device’ during New York protests, ‘just survived assassination attempt’

A pair of “suspicious devices” were set alight during the protest and two people were detained.

“I just survived an assassination attempt by these two Muslim men; the homemade bomb they threw landed 3 feet in front of me. The detonator failed to ignite because God is sitting on the throne of my life. We will never surrender to Islam,” Long shared a video of the chaos on X.

An NYPD spokesman said there were no reports of injuries.

Police Chief Jessica Tish said she believed Mamdani and his wife Rama Devaji Was not at home at the time. Mamdani spokesman Joe Calvello confirmed the couple was safe.

“We don’t know yet whether these devices are functional, IEDs or hoax devices because we don’t know yet whether they contain high-energy materials,” Tisch said.

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Both devices were transported for further testing and analysis.

The protest led by Long drew 20 participants, Tisch said. It was titled “Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City, stop public Muslim prayers in New York City.” On the other hand, the counter-protest “Kick Nazis out of New York City, Fight Hate” attracted 125 demonstrators at its peak.

The protest began around 11 a.m. Police divided the two groups into designated areas. However, towards noon, tensions escalated.

According to Tisch, at 12:15 p.m., a protester from Long’s group fired pepper spray at counter-protesters and was arrested. She added that shortly after 12:30pm, an 18-year-old counter-protester “lit a lit device and threw it into the protest area”.

She added that the device landed in a crosswalk and witnesses reported “seeing flames and smoke as it flew through the air,” hit a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet away from police.

Counter-protesters then wrested another device from a 19-year-old man before lighting it on fire and fleeing with it, police said. The man then threw it on the west side of East End Avenue between East 86th Street and East 87th Street, Tisch said.

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Both men were taken into custody, but no charges had been filed as of Saturday evening, according to the New York Police Department. Tisch said the incident was captured on NYPD surveillance cameras.

Overall, Tish said, the protests resulted in the arrest of up to six people, including two men “responsible for handling and deploying the devices,” the person who deployed the pepper spray, and three people related to disorderly conduct and blocking traffic.