NYC Subway Attacked, Suspect In Custody
posted by Jacqueline Leibman | April 18, 2022 | In NewsOn April 12, NBC News reported a man wearing a gas mask opened fire into a crowded New York City subway car during the morning rush hour. After a 30-hour manhunt, New York Police Department (NYPD) apprehended 62-year-old Frank Robert James.
Social media erupted with videos and photos showing aftermath of what occurred on the Manhattan-bound N train as it approached the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
Twenty-nine people were injured in the incident. Ages of the victims range from 15 to mid-40s, according to The New York Times. ABC News reported ten people shot, including three teenagers. Fortunately, no one suffered life-threatening injuries.
Based on witness testimonies, NYPD Comissioner Keechant Sewell told NBC that: “The suspect was in the train car,” she said. “As the train was pulling into the station, the subject put on a gas mask. He then opened a canister that was in his bag and then the car began to fill with smoke. After that he began shooting.”
In a unhinged way—reminiscent of the comic book villain, The Joker—police reported subway riders as hearing the suspect say only “oops” as he dropped and set off the first smoke grenade.
It was reported that the suspect was able to fire 33 shots before it is presumed that the 9 mm Glock—legally bought from a licensed dealer in Ohio in 2011—jammed, saving further lives.
The security cameras at the station, as well as the stops prior to and after, were reported as malfunctioning two days earlier by transit workers.
This delayed the NYPD’s efforts to identify a suspect, however on April 13, NYPD News released a tweet identifying James as the person of interest.
A few hours later, ABC News reported that NYPD Crime Stoppers received a call in which someone said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”
It is believed that the caller was James himself. However, police were already on the way to the restaurant after receiving numerous tips of James being sighted in the vicinity. Found standing at a kiosk charging his phone a block away from the McDonalds, James was arrested less than 30 hours after his attack.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him. We got him,” NPR reported Mayor Eric Adams saying in a video stream from Gracie Mansion.
James has nine prior arrests in NY occurring between 1992 to 1998 and three arrests in New Jersey. NPR reports charges including “possession of burglary tools,” and “theft of service and a criminal sex act.”
NYPD continue to search for a motive, though James’s attack appears to be pre-meditated. According to NPR, police found the gun, extended magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black garbage can, a rolling cart, gasoline and the key to a U-Haul van, left at the scene.
It was also reported that James has had an “erratic work history,” and posts “bigoted, profanity-laced videos” to his YouTube channels, under the moniker “Prophet of Doom” eluding to a “deep, simmering anger.”
NPR also reported that in his YouTube videos, James states “going in and out of several mental health facilities, including two in the Bronx borough of NYC in the 1970s.”
While the New York subway and its commuters returned to business as usual, James made his first court appearance last Thursday.
He is currently being held without bond on “federal charges of conducting a violent attack against a mass transportation system,” as reported by NPR. His court-appointed lawyers have requested a psychiatric evaluation, magnesium pills for leg cramps that James is experiencing, as well as the question of bail to be made available at a later date.
If convicted of current charges, James faces life in prison.
Photo courtesy of David Shankbone.
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