Frank Robert James, 62, was arrested in lower Manhattan on Wednesday, ending a 30-hour manhunt for the lone suspect wanted in an attack that has troubled commuters on the city’s busiest rapid rail network and the busiest in the United States and renewed calls for greater safety in the subway.
James was taken into custody about eight miles from the scene of Tuesday’s attack, which happened during the morning rush hour as the Manhattan-bound N-line train pulled into a subway station in the Sunset Park Brooklyn neighborhood.
Police say 10 people were shot dead, five of them hospitalized in critical but stable condition, and 13 others were injured in the stampede of terrified passengers who spilled out of the smoky subway car onto the platform at 36th Street Station. Street. All should survive.
The shooter disappeared in the pandemonium, but investigators said they established James as a suspect when a scan of the crime scene found a credit card in his name and the keys to a U-Haul pickup truck. that he had rented and parked several pts of houses.
Authorities at the scene also recovered the Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol used in the attack, along with three long-life magazines, a torch, a hatchet, a bag of fireworks and a canister of fireworks. fuel, according to police and court documents.
The following day, investigators tracked James down in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood through tips from residents who recognized him from searched photos, some of whom posted observations on social media, said the police. He was taken into custody without incident, officials said.
The New York Times and New York Post, each citing law enforcement sources, reported that James himself alerted police to his whereabouts on Wednesday in a call he made to an information line from a McDonald’s fast food restaurant. These reports could not be independently verified by Reuters.
A criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn District Court on Wednesday charged James with a single count of committing a terrorist attack or other violent attack on a mass transportation system – a felony punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Thursday, the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
James, a Bronx native with recent addresses in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, had already been arrested nine times in New York and three times in New Jersey, according to New York City Police (NYPD).
Subway shooting suspect, described by eyewitnesses as wearing construction worker clothes, is accused of setting off two smoke bombs in the back of the subway car moments before opening fire on his companions of travel.
Authorities have offered no possible motive for the attack. But according to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the case, James posted a number of YouTube videos giving statements to the New York City mayor about homelessness and the subway system.
A YouTube account apparently belonging to James was removed on Wednesday for violating the online video platform’s “community guidelines”, the company said.
In addition to the items found in the subway station, searches of James’ apartment and a Philadelphia storage locker uncovered other handgun and rifle magazines, ammunition, a Taser and a gun barrel attachment for a silencer, the FBI said.