NEW YORK, April 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The man suspected of firing more than 30 shots in a gun attack on a New York subway train has been charged with a federal terror offence.
Frank R James, 62, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon on the Lower East Side in Manhattan by two patrol officers without incident and is being held at a local police precinct.
At a press conference after his arrest, officials said that James was apprehended thanks to a tip that came in from a member of the public, who took photographs and called NYPD’s Crime Stoppers. They found him on the corner of St Marks Place and First Avenue, one of the busiest intersections in the East Village, and took him into custody.
The 30-hour manhunt involved city, state and federal agencies, as well as help from the public. “We were able to shrink his world quickly, so he had nowhere left to turn,” said Letitia James, the state attorney general.
“We could have not done this without the public’s help,” said the FBI officer at the press conference.
James faces up to life in prison if he is convicted of a terrorist attack on mass transit, according to Breon S Peace, the US attorney for New York’s Eastern District.
At least four schoolchildren aged 12 to 16 are believed to be among the 29 passengers injured requiring medical treatment after suffering from bullet wounds, smoke inhalation, falls and panic. Five of 10 people shot were reported to be in critical but stable condition; another 19 were injured, though nobody was reported to be in life-threatening condition.
Details of his criminal history include nine previous arrests in New York between 1992 and 1998 for crimes including burglary, theft and sexual attack, as well as three in New Jersey (1992, 1993 and 2007) for crimes including disorderly conduct and trespass. He does not have a felony record and he was not known to the FBI, officers said.
James was named a suspect after police found a key to a U-Haul van at Tuesday’s crime scene which authorities said James rented in Philadelphia, as well as a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and extended magazines, a hatchet, fireworks, a liquid believed to be gasoline, a black garbage can, and detonated and undetonated smoke grenades. It’s unclear where or how he obtained the weapon.
Authorities had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the gunman, who was wearing a gas mask as he fired 33 shots on the packed train, in what is the worst violent incident on public transit in recent history.
James, who has links to Wisconsin, Philadelphia, Ohio, New York and New Jersey, has posted dozens of bizarre rambling videos on social media in recent years in which he has expressed a range of bigoted views on topics ranging from mental health services, death and race to Ukraine.
In a video posted last month, James singled out the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams, by name, criticizing his recently announced public safety policies targeting homeless people in the subway. The security detail for Adams, who is at home recovering from Covid, will be strengthened in light of the videos, according to New York’s police commissioner, Keechant Sewell.
In an earlier interview on WNYC, Adams said that the city was exploring new gun detection technologies for the subway, which could be piloted soon. He also said the state, not the city, was responsible for cameras on the subway system.
As law enforcement searched for James, the subway service seemed back to normal at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Police presence on the subway was beefed up overnight, but Tuesday’s terrifying incident follows a spate of random attacks on the subway, which will not help government efforts to convince people that the city’s underground transport system is safe. At least a third of New Yorkers – about 3 million people – ride the subway, but passenger numbers are still down more than 40% compared with pre-pandemic numbers. — NNN-AGENCIES
