Bomb Scare at MSK Shuts York Ave for Several Hours
Police shut down York Ave. and summoned the bomb squad for a device eventually found to be “non-hazardous.” One report said the suspicious package was left by an ex-employee who was arrested.
| 14 Mar 2026 | 10:18
Police and the FDNY responded to a suspicious package in the lobby of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on March 14 for what was initially feared to be an explosive. (
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Police said they deemed the package left in the lobby of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on York Ave. on March 14 to be “non-hazardous.” (
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The Upper East Side, which was already on a state of heightened alert following bombs tossed at domonstrators a week earlier, was breathing a sigh of relief after a suspicious package left in the lobby of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was deemed “non-hazardous.”
Police sealed off traffic for hours on York Ave. and summoned the bomb squad after responding to a 911 call about a suspicious package feared to be an explosive device left in the lobby of the world reknowned cancer hospital at E. 69th St. shortly after noon on March 14.
Police said the device was found to be “non-hazardous” and re-opened York Ave. shortly after 3 p.m.
One report in the Daily News said an ex-employee left a package in the lobby of the building at 1275 York Ave. with a note saying it was a bomb, prompting a 911 call shortly after noon on March 14. The report said the ex-employee was arrested, but the name was not disclosed.
Sloan Kettering had announced a major layoff of 400 people in September, 2025, amounting to nearly 2% of its workforce as the prestigious hospital said it was facing a $200 million deficit in 2026.
Officially an NYPD spokesperson on the evening of March 14 was only saying that a “person of interest was picked up and taken to an area hospital.” The reason the individual was taken to a local hospital was not disclosed.
It comes as the Upper East Side remains jittery following the March 7 incident in which two teenagers from Pennsylvania were arrested after tossing the IEDs at domonstrators just outside Gracie Mansion.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were apprehended at the scene after the homemade explosive devices failed to detonate.
Both suspects reportedly told investigators that they were supportive of ISIS, a Mid-East terrorist. They were both US citizens but had traveled to the Mideast in recent years.
“This was a planned attack motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by violent foreign terrorist organization,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch at the time.
The scene were the bomb tossing duds were tossed was at the scene of a demonstration called by right wing provacateur Jack Lang that drew a small crowd estimated to be about 20 people. Lang had been one of Jan. 6 rioters who was imprisoned awaiting trial when he was pardoned by Trump. A counter protest of about 120 people showed up with the theme to “Drive the Nazis out of New York.
The protests were kept in separate areas by police but tensions escalated when police said someone from Lang’s group pepper sprayed the counter protestors.
About 20 minutes later, Balat “threw an ignited device which landed on a crosswalk,” Tisch said, but it quickly extinguished itself. Balat grabbed a second device from Kayumi, but dropped it on the street.
Both were quickly nabbed by the NYPD and face a number of federal charges.