Suspect in New York subway shooting in custody
New York, Apr 13 (EFE).- The man suspected in a shooting incident on the New York subway that left two-dozen people injured was apprehended Wednesday, authorities said.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a video message shortly after the arrest of Frank James in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood.
The federal government is charging James, a 62-year-old African American, with carrying out a violent attack on a mass transit system, Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said.
Conviction on that charge could mean a life sentence, Peace said.
“We hope this arrest brings some solace to the victims and the people of the city of New York,” New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
NYPD officers were joined by hundreds of state and federal law enforcement personnel in the hunt for James, who was identified late Tuesday as a “person of interest” in the case.
Yet it was a tip from the public that led to the arrest.
A person called the city’s “crime stoppers” telephone line to say that James was at a McDonald’s in Manhattan, but by the time officers arrived, the suspect was not at the restaurant, NYPD Chief Kenneth Corey said.
“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.
James offered no resistance.
The Manhattan-bound train was pulling into the 36th Street station in Brooklyn at 8:24 am Tuesday when “witnesses state the male opened up two smoke grenades, tossed them on the subway floor, brandishes a Glock 9-mm handgun,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
“He then fired that weapon 33 times, striking at least 10 people” – seven males and three females – before he fled, Essig said.
An additional 13 people suffered injuries related to smoke inhalation, falling down or panic attacks.
Five of the 10 gunshot victims were in critical condition, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.
James had a YouTube channel which he used to disseminate videos focused on violence, systemic racism, and his criticism of public officials, including Mayor Adams.
Though he had been arrested a dozen times in New York and New Jersey for various offenses in the 1990s, none of those cases led to a felony conviction. EFE
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