NYC Bombing a Protest of Anti-LGBT Bias, or Is Claim a Hoax?

A Tumblr user has claimed that Saturday's bombing in New York City's heavily gay Chelsea neighborhood was a protest against the oppression of LGBT people.

Meanwhile, other claims are coming in to police, such as a 911 call from an unidentified man saying there will be more explosions and a handwritten letter, partly in Arabic, found in a plastic bag containing a second explosive device.

The New York Police Department has not established the veracity of the two Tumblr posts, which were on a page with a rainbow flag and titles "I'm the NY Bomber," the city's Daily News reports. One read in part, "I did it because I cannot stand society. I cannot live in a world where homosexuals like myself as well as the rest of the LGBTQ+ community are looked down upon by society." The second post expressed reservations about taking lives.

Both were published Sunday, and the page was taken down this afternoon, the Daily News reports. Sources told the paper that police were speaking to local LGBT activists about the page.

The man who called 911 said, "I'm looking at the explosion down the block. There will be more," the New York Post reports, citing law enforcement sources.

A homemade bomb went off in a trash bin near the corner of Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street about 8:40 p.m. Saturday. Twenty-nine people were injured; none of the inures were life-threatening, and all the injured had been released from hospitals by Sunday morning.

Police are examining another explosive device, using a pressure cooker, found a few blocks away. It did not go off. The handwritten letter was found with it, the Post reports.

New York City and state authorities say they believe the bombing was not due to international terrorism, and they have not established a motive.

Police have obtained surveillance video of a man planting the unexploded device, the Post notes. They are also interviewing two men who say they observed a man carrying a suitcase who looked out of place in the neighborhood, to see if he might be a person of interest in the case, according to the paper.