Subway suspect tipped off police to his location
NEW YORK » The man accused of shooting 10 people on a Brooklyn subway train was arrested Wednesday and charged with a federal terrorism offense after the suspect himself called police to come get him, law enforcement officials said.
Frank R. James, 62, was taken into custody about 30 hours after the carnage on a rush-hour train, which left five victims in critical condition and people around the city on edge.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
James was awaiting arraignment on a charge that pertains to terrorist or other violent attacks against mass transit systems and carries a sentence of up to life in prison, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
In recent months, James railed in online videos about racism and violence in the U.S. and about his experiences with mental health care in New York City, and he had criticized Adams’ policies on mental health and subway safety. But the motive for the subway attack remains unclear, and there is no indication that James had ties to terror organizations, international or otherwise, Peace said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether James, who is from New York but has lived recently in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, has an attorney or anyone else who can speak for him. A sign taped to the door of James’ Milwaukee apartment asks that all mail be delivered to a post office box.
James, in a blue t-shirt and brown pants with his hands cuffed behind his back, didn’t respond to reporters shouting questions as police escorted him to a car a few hours after his arrest.
Police had launched a massive effort to find him, releasing his name and issuing cellphone alerts.
They got a tip Wednesday that he was in a McDonald’s in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said.
The tipster was James, and he told authorities to come and get him, two law enforcement officials said. They weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
James was gone when officers arrived, but they soon spotted him on a busy corner nearby.
Four police cars zoomed around a corner, officers leaped out and, soon, a compliant James was in handcuffs as a crowd of people looked on, witness Aleksei Korobow said.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said authorities “were able to shrink his world quickly.”
“There was nowhere left for him to run,” she said.
The day before, James set off smoke grenades in a commuter-packed subway car and then fired at least 33 shots with a 9 mm handgun, police said.
Police Chief of Detectives James Essig said police were told that after James opened one of the smoke grenades, a rider asked, “What did you do?”
“Oops,” James said, then went on to brandish his gun and open fire, according to a witness account.
At least a dozen people who escaped gunshot wounds were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries.
As terrified riders fled the attack, James apparently hopped another train — the same one many were steered to for safety, police said. He got out at the next station, disappearing into the nation’s most populous city.