USA TODAY International Edition
Attack suspect arrested, faces terrorism charge
Officials: Man accused in NY shooting called tip line on self
NEW YORK – After a search that lasted more than 24 hours, police arrested a man they said opened fire on a Brooklyn subway train during morning rush hour Tuesday, an attack that left more than two dozen people injured.
The 62- year- old suspect was arrested Wednesday after police officers stopped him in Manhattan’s East Village. He had called himself into the city’s “crime stoppers” line and reported his location, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
The suspect faces a federal terror charge of attacking a mass transit system. He could face life in prison if convicted, said Breon Peace, U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The attack unfolded on a Manhattan- bound N train arriving at a Sunset Park subway station around 8: 30 a. m. Tuesday. Authorities said the suspect put on a gas mask and threw two smoke grenades before firing 33 times at passengers as the train pulled into the station.
After shooting, the suspect got off the N train at the 36th Street station, boarded an R train that had just arrived at the platform and traveled one stop before exiting, said James Essig, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department.
“We hope this arrest brings some solace to the victims and the people of the city of New York,” Commissioner Sewell said, applauding the hundreds of law enforcement officers who helped investigate and find the suspect. “We were able to shrink his world quickly.
There was nowhere left for him to run.”
The suspect, Frank James, purchased the 9mm semiautomatic handgun used in the attack in Ohio in 2011, Essig said. He has nine arrests in New York from 1992 to 1998, including possession of burglary tools and a criminal sex act, along with three arrests in New Jersey in 1991, 1992 and 2007, Essig said. None was a felony conviction, meaning he could legally purchase a firearm.
Federal court documents unsealed Wednesday contained a picture of the Glock 9mm firearm recovered by authorities and traced to James, which shows that an attempt was made to remove the serial number before the weapon was discarded.
Federal authorities located a storage facility in Philadelphia, registered to James, where they recovered a cache of 9mm ammunition, a pistol barrel for the use of a silencer, targets and an undisclosed amount of .223- caliber ammunition used for an AR- 15 semiautomatic rifle. According to court documents, James allegedly visited the storage unit the evening before the attack.
Court documents state that investigators sought authority for no- knock warrants in applications for the searches of his Philadelphia storage locker and apartments, fearing that an armed James may have fled back to Philadelphia after the attack.
“Specifically, the defendant, James, is accused of using a weapon to attempt to kill dozens of people, and I believe that if law enforcement were to knock and announce their presence before a premises in which they believed he would be found, James could take advantage of the opportunity to ambush law enforcement,” the federal complaint says.
Police did not comment on James’ motivation and asked for anyone who was on the train to contact the department. Investigators looked into YouTube videos that threatened violence and appeared to come from James.
At least 10 people were shot in the attack, and at least 19 others were taken to hospitals for injuries ranging from smoke inhalation to shrapnel wounds. Video from the scene showed chaos as smoke and subway riders poured out of the train. The shooting sparked fears around increasing crime in the nation’s largest subway system, a worry city officials tried to quell Wednesday as they vowed the trains were safe.
How arrest unfolded
About 30 hours after the carnage on the subway, James called the city’s “crime stoppers” line to report he was at a McDonald’s in Manhattan, law enforcement officials said.
But when officers got to the location, he was not at the restaurant, said NYPD Chief Kenneth Corey.
“They start driving around the neighborhood looking for him. They see him on the corner of St. Mark’s ( Place) and First ( Avenue), and they take him into custody,” Corey said.
Zach Tahhan said he was repairing a camera system at Saifee Hardware and Garden Store, just a few doors down from the McDonald’s, when he noticed someone who appeared to be James walking by. A manager at the store, Frank Puebla, was outside with him. They looked at one another knew it was the man whose face had been plastered across the news and online.
“My eyes went just to his face and I noticed that was the guy,” Puebla said in an interview inside the store.
They saw a nearby police car and flagged officers. “Yo! This is the guy!” Tahhan said he yelled to police. The pair watched in disbelief as officers detained James.
“It’s a lucky day,” Tahhan, a contractor originally from Lebanon, said with a smile. “I am fasting and it is Ramadan.”
Will Shellhorn was walking up First Avenue close to St. Mark’s Place a little after noon when he saw James being arrested.
“I saw a police officer walk up to him,” he said. “Then three cars arrived, and I saw police officers go up to him, but he seemed totally nonchalant. He didn’t resist or put up a fight.”
Suspect’s sister
James’ sister said she had little contact with her brother and had not seen him face to face in a long time, according to an interview with The New York Times.
The Times reported Catherine James Robinson confirmed details about her brother and said he was born in the Bronx. He moved often between cities, and the siblings spoke only occasionally on the phone. The last time they spoke was after the death of their sister several years ago, Robinson told the Times.
USA TODAY reached a number listed for Robinson on Wednesday afternoon, but a woman hung up shortly after answering the call.
Security camera problem
The head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday there was a problem with a security camera server at the 36th Street subway station where the train stopped.
“It seems like that one ( camera) had a server problem” and wasn’t sending images to the NYPD, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber told NY1. On CBS, Lieber said the camera was near a turnstile at the station, but there were 600 cameras throughout the N train line.
“There are images of this fellow that are going to be found,” Lieber said.
The MTA has cameras in all subway stations but not on each station’s platform, where riders board and get off trains.
Essig said the N train was between the stations at 59th and 36th streets when the shooting began. The shooter was in the second car in the rear corner, and he fled after the train pulled into the station, Essig said.
Shooting survivor
Hourari Benkada had just gotten on the N train on his way to work and was wearing headphones Tuesday when smoke began pouring into the subway car, he told CNN that night from his hospital bed.
Benkada said he heard a woman shout she was pregnant, so he went to help her. He hugged her as the crowd in the train rushed to the back. Benkada said he was pushed, then felt a gunshot in the leg.
People on the train struggled to open the doors to other cars to try to escape the smoke and shooting, Benkada told CNN. He didn’t initially think his wound was serious, but when he got off the train and looked at his leg, “the size of a quarter is gushing out blood” around his knee, he said.
Benkada said he was sitting next to the shooter but didn’t recognize the photos of James that police released. The shooter wore a mask, Benkada said.
“I don’t think I could ever ride a train again,” Benkada said.
Suspect ‘ angry, loud and alone’
A neighbor who lived across the street from the shooting suspect in a Milwaukee duplex said he struck her as “angry, loud and alone” for the six to eight months they lived near each other.
Keilah Miller told USA TODAY that James live d in an adjacent apartment. She often heard yelling but never saw anyone enter the apartment with James. “He was just not approachable,” she said.
Miller interacted with James once when she left her keys in her door. She said he banged on the door, “and he’s there saying, ‘ Don’t do that!’ ”
YouTube videos, threats
Police found two undetonated smoke grenades, a hatchet, gasoline and the key to a U- Haul van on the train. Investigators believe James rented the van in Philadelphia and police found it Tuesday in Brooklyn, Essig said.
James has ties to Wisconsin and Philadelphia, authorities said.
Sewell said police are investigating social media posts purportedly from James in which he mentioned homelessness and Adams. The mayor’s security detail would be tightened out of an “abundance of caution,” she said.
The videos touch on themes of violence, systemic racism and Black superiority. In a video posted the day before the attack, a man says, “I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die.”
Other videos police are reviewing include clips from New York’s subway trains. In February, a video mentioned the city’s subway safety plan. The man says the plan “is doomed for failure” and refers to himself as a “victim” of the mayor’s mental health program. A video in January – called “Dear Mr. Mayor” – is critical of Adams’ plan to end gun violence, an early focus of the Democrat’s first term in office.
Among the videos is a 16- minute black- and- white clip from the 1967 movie “The Incident.” Based on a play called “Ride With Terror,” the clip shows two street hoods who terrorize 14 passengers in a New York City subway car; the footage shows a Black passenger being racially harassed by one of the bigoted white aggressors on the train.
City will look into metal detectors
Adams said on MSNBC on Wednesday morning the city was exploring all “legal” technologies to keep the subways safe and detect potential weapons entering the system.
Asked about adding metal detectors, Adams said it was a possibility but the detectors would not be like the ones at airports but less invasive technologies that riders might not even notice.
Adams said a safe and reliable subway system is essential for New York City. “It’s the lifeblood of our city. It’s the great equalizer,” he said on MSNBC.
Cities ramp up police
Police in other major U. S. cities increased their presence in public transit.
The BART system around the San Francisco Bay Area, SEPTA in Philadelphia and Washington’s Metro were among the major public transit systems adding police officers or on a high alert.