Suspects in attack outside NYC mayor’s residence detailed their plans in notebook and audio recordings, prosecutors say

By Alex Stambaugh, Emma Tucker, CNN

(CNN) — Two men accused of trying to detonate makeshift bombs during protests near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence last month detailed in a notebook and through audio recordings how they hoped their attack would kill dozens of people, according to an indictment released Tuesday.

Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, who were arrested on March 7 outside Gracie Mansion, were charged with eight crimes, including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction for the ISIS-inspired attack, federal prosecutors said.

“All I know is I want to start terror bro” and “I want to petrify these people,” Kayumi told Balat on the morning of the attack, according to dashcam video captured while the two traveled from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, the indictment says.

While detailing their plans during the exchange, Balat predicted they were “gonna kill about 8 to 16 people,” or as many as 30 to 60 people if the area of the attack was crowded, according to the document.

No devices exploded and no one was injured in the attack, which unfolded at an anti-Islam demonstration and a counterprotest during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, however the NYPD said the attack was capable of causing “serious injury or death.”

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, and his wife Rama Duwaji were not home at the time, he said.

The indictment details evidence obtained from the vehicle allegedly used by Balat and Kayumi, US citizens from Pennsylvania, including a handwritten notebook and approximately three days of dashcam video and audio recordings.

The notebook included steps of their plan, including a list of ingredients and equipment needed for mixing explosives and steps for constructing a bomb.

Elsewhere in the notebook, were details of an apparent alternative plan for an attack using a vehicle and a list of possible targets, “including ‘festivals,’ ‘parades,’ ‘protest,’ and ‘celebrations,’” the document says.

The dashcam recordings captured during their drive from Pennsylvania to Manhattan detailed discussions of how they would conduct the attack, the likely outcome of the attack, and how they were targeting “the government” and “civilians,” the document says.

After the attack, FBI agents recovered “explosive residue and bombmaking supplies” from inside a storage unit in Pennsylvania that Balat had rented just days before, the document says. The evidence included two bowls containing residue of the powerful explosive TATP.

CNN has contacted attorneys for Balat and Kayumi for comment.

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CNN’s Gloria Pazmino and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.