New York City police and law enforcement officers lead subway shooting suspect Frank R. James, 62, center, away from a police station in New York
Highlight
- 62-year-old Frank R. James was taken into custody almost 30 hours after the incident of violence
- James was to appear in court on Thursday on a terrorist-related charge
- James did not answer questions from reporters as he was taken in a police car after his arrest
The man accused of shooting 10 people on a Brooklyn subway train was arrested Wednesday and charged with a federal terrorism offense, law enforcement officials said.
62-year-old Frank R. James was taken into custody nearly 30 hours after violence broke out on a crowded train that had left people around town on edge.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” said Mayor Eric Adams.
Brooklyn US Attorney Brian Peace said James was to appear in court on Thursday on charges that relate to terrorist or other violent attacks against the mass transit system and carry a life sentence in prison.
In recent months, James featured in videos on his YouTube channel about racism and violence in America and his struggles with mental health care in New York City, and he criticized Adams’ policies on mental health and subway safety. But the motive for the subway attack is unclear, and there is no indication that James had links to international or other terrorist organizations, Peace said.
James did not respond to shouting questions from reporters as he was escorted in a police car on Wednesday afternoon. He was transferred to Federal Bureau of Prisons custody hours later and held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. A message seeking comment was sent to a lawyer representing him.
Police on Wednesday urged the public to help by releasing his name and photo and even sending a cellphone alert before any information was received.
Two law enforcement officers said the tipster was James, to say he knew he was wanted and that police could find him at McDonald’s in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood. He was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
James was gone when officers arrived, but was soon spotted in a busy corner nearby, said department head Kenneth Corey.
Passerby Alexei Korobo said he saw four police cars on the Zoom pass, and when he caught them, James was in handcuffs as did a crowd of people.
“They had nowhere to run,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
The arrests came as gunshot victims, and at least a dozen others wounded in the attack, tried to recover.
“I don’t think I can ever ride a train again,” the Manhattan hotel housekeeping manager, who was shot in the leg, told CNN from a hospital bed.
Governor Kathy Hochul, aged 12, visited the victims in the hospital on Tuesday night. The governor said one was going to class in the borough of Manhattan Community College when he was shot or shrapnel and needed surgery.
Guatemala’s foreign ministry said Rudy Alfredo Pérez Vasquez, an 18-year-old Guatemalan national, was hospitalized but “out of danger” on Wednesday after being injured in the attack.
Police said James detonated two smoke grenades and fired at least 33 shots from a 9mm gun at a subway car full of passengers.
When the first smoke bomb exploded, a passenger asked what he was doing, according to a police witness.
“Oops,” said James, set a second, then brandished the gun and opened fire, said Chief of Detectives James Essig.
When the train stopped at a station and the frightened riders fled, James apparently stopped another train – the same one that had been driven to safety, police said. He leaves at the next station, disappearing into the country’s most populous city.
But James left behind many clues at the crime scene, including the gun—which he bought in Ohio in 2011—ammunition magazines, a hatchet, smoking grenades, gasoline, a bank card in his name, and a U-Haul van. Key was rented in Philadelphia on Monday, according to police and a court complaint.
Tucked in an orange workers’ jacket, which he apparently threw on a subway platform, was a receipt for a Philadelphia storage unit. The complaint said officers found ammunition, targets and a pistol barrel in a storage locker and learned that he was there on Monday.
The van was found lying vacant, near a station where investigators believe James entered the subway system.
Surveillance cameras captured the van arriving from Philadelphia early Tuesday, and a man wearing the same orange jacket was leaving the vehicle near the station.
Officials said James was born in New York but had recently lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Bruce Allen, a neighbor near the Philadelphia apartment where James had stayed for the past few weeks, said the man never spoke to him, even when he moved in.
James worked in a variety of construction and other jobs, according to his video. Police said he was arrested 12 times in New York and New Jersey between 1990 and 2007 on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to possessing stolen equipment, but he has no felony charges.
His hours of unrelated, outrageous-filled videos range from current events to his life story, to fanciful comments about people from various backgrounds. James is Black.
Some of the videos complain about Adams, the mental health care James says he moved to the city years ago, and the state of the subway. The court’s complaint states that in one post, he tells about trains full of homeless people.
In another, he denounced the treatment of black people in America, saying, “The message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting.”
The Brooklyn subway station, where passengers fled the attack, was open as usual on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the violence.
Jude Jacques, who takes the subway to work as fire safety director two blocks away from the shooting site, said he prays every morning but had a special request on Wednesday.
“I said, ‘God, everything’s in your hands,'” Jacques said. “I was the cheetah, and you might wonder why. Everyone’s scared because it just happened.”
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