How two teens from wealthy Pennsylvania suburbs became suspects in an attempted ‘ISIS-inspired’ attack in New York City - NBC News

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. — Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have a lot in common: They’re both teenagers. They’re both first-generation Americans. Both live on tree-lined streets in the affluent suburbs north of Philadelphia.

“Nothing crazy happens around this area,” said Logan Lombardi, who went to high school with Kayumi.

For all their similarities, however, authorities say the only known link between the pair is what they did together last Saturday: attempt what investigators describe as an ISIS-inspired attack by throwing explosive devices at a protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence.

Federal prosecutors allege that Balat, 18, and Kayumi, 19, drove to Manhattan from Pennsylvania the morning of March 7, parking a few blocks away from Gracie Mansion before slipping into a crowd that included participants in an anti-Islam demonstration and a group of counterprotesters. The pair was arrested after Balat threw two jars packed with explosive materials at protesters and law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

Neither of the devices detonated, and no one was injured. Balat and Kayumi are being detained on several federal charges, including attempting to provide support to the Islamic State, after prosecutors said the pair made statements about the terrorist group.

Body-camera video from the New York City officers who arrested Kayumi shows him responding “ISIS” to someone in the crowd asking why he had done it, according to a federal complaint.

After waiving his Miranda rights, prosecutors said, Balat pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State and told authorities that he hoped to inflict more carnage than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which left three dead and more than 260 others injured.

Lawyers for Balat and Kayumi did not immediately return requests for comment. Balat’s attorney, Mehdi Essmidi, told NBC News on Monday that Balat has “complicated stuff going on” and suggested that his client did not know Kayumi prior to Saturday.

“They’re strangers to each other,” he said.

Classmates recall a quiet, independent student

While authorities have not detailed how the teenagers knew each other, the two grew up roughly 4 miles apart in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Kayumi lives in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on a street lined with 4,000-square-foot brick homes, and manicured lawns. His parents emigrated from Afghanistan and became U.S. citizens in 2004 and 2009, according to CBS News.

On Thursday, no one answered the door, though a Mercedes sat in the driveway. Neighbors a few houses away told NBC News they didn’t know Kayumi or his family well and said they mostly kept to themselves.

Kayumi enrolled part time at nearby Bucks County Community College in September 2024, according to a college spokesperson.

Earlier that year, he had graduated from Council Rock High School North, which has a football field and track, roughly a dozen newly paved tennis courts and a student parking lot packed with luxury cars. Students said the area is not known for the violence prosecutors now allege.

“The high school and the town — people are pretty affluent,” said former classmate Connor McCormick. “There’s not really a whole lot of controversy at all.”

The high school said in a statement that “there is no evidence that he has posed a threat to any Council Rock schools” and encouraged concerned students to consult with their school counselors.

Another former classmate, Matt — who asked that his last name not be published due to fears of retaliation — said he and Kayumi were in smaller classes for children with learning disabilities.

Matt said that although he and Kayumi saw each other a lot, their conversations were typically brief and one-sided.

“He definitely was very quiet,” Matt said. “He would not talk unless you tried to talk to him, you know what I mean? Like, he would not say a word.”

Matt said that while Kayumi did not get bullied regularly, he was sometimes a target.

“He wasn’t really that violent, but if someone would say something to him, like disrespecting him or something, he wasn’t afraid to say something back,” Matt said.

Matt and Lombardi recalled that Kayumi was involved in at least one physical altercation at school. The two former classmates did not witness the fight and could not recall who else was involved or who instigated it. They said they remember the altercation because physical violence at their high school was “very uncommon.” A representative for the school declined to comment on Kayumi’s student records.

Lombardi, 19, said he used to sit next to Kayumi on the bus to and from school nearly every day during their sophomore year. He described Kayumi as “independent” but not someone who shied away from conversation.

“He didn’t have any telling signs if we’re...