New York - Authorities said Wednesday they had arrested a man accused of shooting 10 people aboard a Brooklyn subway train a day earlier and charged him with a federal terrorism offence.
The arrest capped off a frenzied 29-hour period during which law enforcement officials said Frank R. James — a 62-year-old man who had posted a series of angry, bigoted videos online — filled a subway car with smoke, fired nearly three dozen rounds and then seemingly vanished, leaving behind terrorized commuters, a shaken city and a sprawling investigation.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday after James was taken into custody.
James was being charged with “conducting a violent attack on a mass transportation vehicle,” according to the office of Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Peace said James sought to “cause death and serious bodily injury” to passengers and transit employees on the subway system. If convicted, James could face a sentence of life in prison.
In the wake of the subway attack Tuesday, investigators made a flurry of requests for public help in finding James. Police say they took him into custody without incident early Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan after receiving a tip, and said investigators were still trying to determine what motivated the attack.
Law enforcement officials and witnesses described the subway attack as a grim, terrifying burst of violence that shattered a routine morning commute.
According to police, the attacker was aboard an N train rumbling through Brooklyn on Tuesday morning when he lobbed a pair of smoke grenades onto the subway floor.
With smoke suffusing the car, police said, the attacker then pulled out a 9mm Glock handgun and fired off 33 shots, hitting 10 people. None of the injuries were life-threatening, police said.
Then, police said, the attacker fled. Later that day, they identified James as a person of interest in the case, saying they had linked him to a piece of evidence found at the scene — a key for a U-Haul van. James had rented the van in Philadelphia, police said, and they later found it in Brooklyn, not far from another N train stop. By Wednesday morning, police said, James was considered a suspect in the case.
Attempts to reach James, his relatives and neighbours were unsuccessful. The federal public defenders in New York, who court records show were appointed to represent him, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Police said James had previously been arrested nine times in New York during the 1990s, including on charges of possessing burglary tools and committing a criminal sex act. They also said he had been arrested in New Jersey in the early 1990s and again in 2007, on charges of trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct. They described him as having connections to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and New York.
After the shooting, it appears that James boarded an R train that pulled into the station, rode it one stop and got out, James W. Essig, chief of detectives for the New York police, said at a briefing Wednesday. James was spotted entering the subway in Park Slope, his “last known whereabouts,” Essig said, before he was taken into custody.
An FBI agent, writing in a complaint, said that in YouTube videos, James had made remarks about New York City's subways, Adams and “this homeless situation.” He also commented on conspiracy theories, the agent wrote, at one point saying he “should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting motherf-----s.”
Sewell had said there were “concerning” social media posts connected to James in which he talked about the city, homelessness and Adams, prompting a heightening of the mayor's security.
A YouTube account under the name of “prophet oftruth88” created in 2014 shows a man who appears to be James ranting and cursing in front of the camera in numerous videos.
In January, in a 44-minute video titled “DEAR MR MAYOR,” James criticized Adams's plans to address gun violence and mental health issues. Tackling violent crime and public safety have been pivotal priorities for Adams, the former police captain elected mayor last year.
James, who said he was born and raised in New York City, condemned employment and training programs for low-income Black youths, adding that he had been a “victim” of those and calling his experiences a “horror show.”
After announcing his arrest on Wednesday afternoon, police laid out more details about both how they found James and ways they connected him with the attack.
In a complaint filed in federal court that day, an FBI special agent wrote that they found numerous items linked to James. Investigators spotted two bags at the attack scene, the agent wrote, containing the U-Haul key as well as bank cards, a pistol, gasoline and fireworks.
The pistol, the agent wrote, was legally purchased by a “Frank Robert James” in Ohio. One of the bank cards was issued to "Frank James," the agent wrote in the complaint, which was filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The agent also said U-Haul provided records showing that James had rented the U-Haul in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon, less than a day before the Brooklyn attack, after reserving and paying for it last week.
The Washington Post