One of the alleged ISIS-loving wannabe terrorists nabbed in the Gracie Mansion bomb plot was allegedly caught on surveillance video buying a fireworks fuse in Pennsylvania just days before the attack.
Cameras captured Emir Balat, 18, coughing up $6.89 for the 20-foot consumer firework safety fuse Phantom Fireworks in Penndel on March 2, 6ABC reported.
The company discovered the footage after searching Balat’s name in their sales records to see if he or his co-accused, 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, had ever shopped at the store before.
Emir Balat, 18, of Langhorne, appears to have purchased a 20-foot roll of consumer safety fuse from Phantom Fireworks in Penndel, Penn. on March 2, 2026. CBS News/YouTubePhantom Fireworks immediately turned over the surveillance footage to federal investigators, the company said.
Authorities also revealed that explosive residue was found inside a storage unit in the Philadelphia suburb of Langhorne, not far from Balat’s upscale family home.
FBI bomb techs conducted controlled detonations of the residue earlier this week, which led to “several loud bangs,” the Middletown Township Police Department said on Facebook.
“These controlled detonations were conducted by trained personnel and were carried out in a controlled manner,” police said. “While the noise may have been startling to some residents, there was no danger to the public at any time.”
Balat and Kayumi — who sources said had self-radicalized and taken on the hateful ISIS cause — were arrested on federal charges after they allegedly hurled a pair of homemade bombs outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence on the Upper East Side where an anti-Islam protest was taking place on Saturday.
The devices were packed with an explosive material known as “Mother of Satan” favored by terrorists, investigators said.
Footage captured Balat tossing one of the devices near cops before being handed another IED by Kayumi, prosecutors alleged.
He briefly moves out of camera view before returning to the counter with the fuse, speaking with a retail associate and completing the $6.89 purchase in a checkout lane. CBS News/YouTubeNeither bombs detonated during the chaos.
Here’s the latest on the bombs thrown outside Gracie Mansion
- 911 calls made from suspected wannabe terrorist’s Pa. home after botched NYC bombing
- CNN anchor apologizes for inaccurately reporting ISIS-inspired bomb throwers were targeting Mamdani
- NYC terror suspect allegedly seen purchasing fireworks fuse days before hurling explosives near Gracie Mansion
- Hero NYPD chief who went viral after chasing down Gracie Mansion bomb suspects speaks out
Balat and Kayumi were quickly taken down by NYPD officers who charged toward the pair as they tried to flee.
The teens both later allegedly admitted to harboring radical Islamist motives.
An unexploded homemade explosive device sits on the sidewalk. AFP via Getty Images
Emir Balat runs away after throwing a homemade explosive device at a protest outside Gracie Mansion on March 7, 2026. REUTERSBalat chillingly said he hoped the failed attack would be deadlier than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, prosecutors alleged.
The teen duo, who are both US citizens, faces federal charges of providing material aid to ISIS.
— Additional reporting by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, with Post wires
