Brooklyn subway shooting suspect Frank James documented his trip from Wisconsin to the northeast on a series of YouTube videos posted in recent weeks.
In a video uploaded on March 20, James said he had left Milwaukee — officials said he linked to the address in Wisconsin — and was spending the night at a Fort Wayne, Indiana, hotel.
“The guy on the bus drive I’m thinking just because I’m heading back into the danger zone,” he said in that video. “You know, it’s definitely triggering a lot of negative thoughts because I’m suffering, I have a pretty serious case of post-traumatic stress all the f***ing years after the sh*t.”
James indicated that he was carrying all of his belongings in the van and that he would store some of them in a Philadelphia-area storage unit. Although James said Philadelphia was his final destination, he said the Penske truck he had hired needed to be dropped off in New Jersey, New Jersey.
CNN contacted Penske, who would not confirm whether James rented a van, but said they have reached out to the FBI to assist with their investigation.
After the night in Fort Wayne, James headed east and made his way to Pittsburgh, where he said in a video uploaded on March 21 that he was staying at a hotel near Pittsburgh International Airport.
The next night, in another video, James said he had found a hotel near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
In that video, he is seen drinking whiskey and later he starts showing signs of intoxication. At the end of the video, he starts abusing and at one point says that he is sleeping.
He said he had recently stopped drinking because it gave him a “shake.”
Around March 25, James uploaded a video claiming he made it to the Philadelphia area. Based on the video, it is not clear where James was between March 22 and March 25.
In that March 25 video, James said he was staying at a Best Western hotel in Bordentown, New Jersey. He also gave his room number and a short tour of the room.
In that video, James is also seen drinking alcohol.
“Okay, so I tried to make this video by pulling some Jim Beam a little bit earlier,” he said. “I want to get high to make this video because I felt like I really couldn’t — I feel like I work best when I’m high.”
James also said that he “was last in New York a few years ago.
In the video, James also mentions that he will stay at the hotel until March 28, when he will move on to other accommodations inside Philadelphia.
The video has since been taken down by YouTube.
CNN has confirmed that James rented a short-term rental apartment on West Ontario Street in Philadelphia. A neighbor, who identified James to CNN, said James was in the apartment last week, having been seen taking boxes from a U-hall truck.
The neighbor also told CNN that law enforcement recently searched the apartment.
In a criminal complaint unsolved after James was taken into custody, prosecutors alleged that James actually rented an apartment and a storage unit in Philadelphia. According to the complaint, records from rideshare operator Lyft indicate they visited the facility on April 11 at 6:17 p.m. ET.
Those records also indicate that James ordered about 21 rides to and from the apartment by March 28 and April 10. CNN has contacted the management company for the Philadelphia apartment for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
According to the complaint, records from the apartment management company indicate that James had rented the apartment for at least 15 days.
James did not mention any plans to tour the New York area or state any concrete plans he was planning to shoot in videos that have been reviewed by CNN.
CNN has previously reported that according to the transaction’s documentation, on April 6, James made a reservation to pick up a U-Haul van in Philadelphia on April 11.
As CNN reports, hours before the attack at 4 a.m. ET Tuesday, James drove a U-Haul van from Staten Island to Brooklyn.
James was taken into custody on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at around 2 p.m. Wednesday.