NYPD officers at center of Gracie Mansion IED response hailed as heroes as photo of response goes viral
A photo of an NYPD chief leaping over a barricade while responding to the IED incident outside Gracie Mansion last weekend has gone viral.
The image captures Chief Aaron Edwards as he rushes toward Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19. The two Pennsylvania men face a host of charges for allegedly igniting homemade bombs during a protest in what NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called "a planned attack motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by a violent foreign terrorist organization," namely ISIS.
The NYPD's post on social media is captioned "Some heroes wear capes -- Chief Aaron Edwards wears blue."
"It was all instinct. It wasn't a lot of thought. There was a real threat, there was a real danger there, and the goal was to just get to it and take care of it. So, there wasn't a lot of thought," Edwards said of Saturday's incident.
Edwards has been with the NYPD for nearly 23 years. In December, he was promoted to Manhattan North borough chief.
The post has racked up nearly 20 million views. Other social media users have since meme-ified the image, adding a cape, or using his silhouette in a mock-up of the "Bat-signal," and more.
"I want to commend the officers who were on site. They faced a chaotic situation that very quickly could've become far more dangerous. NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards and Sgt. Luis Navarro ran towards the danger so that others could run to safety," New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday morning.
"When those devices were ignited in the middle of a crowded protest, officers did not step back, they stepped forward," Tisch said Monday. "Assistant Chief Aaron Edwards and Sgt. Luis Navarro ... ran toward a lit IED without hesitation and without regard to their own safety, acting as police officers do on instinct and training to protect people they did not know and would likely never meet."
Navarro told CBS News New York it was the most extreme situation he's found himself in his 11 years with the NYPD.
"We've done counterterrorism training, active shooter training. Everything I've learned in my whole career culminated to that one moment," Navarro said.
"On Saturday, [Sgt. Navarro] and Chief Edwards responded with the calm judgment and professionalism that situations like this demand. Together, they represent the dozens of cops who were safeguarding that protest Saturday afternoon, and the nearly 35,000 members of this department who stand watch over New York City every day," Tisch said.
