Disasters & Accidents

New York police name ‘person of interest’ in subway shooting

(Update 2: Updates and edits throughout, new headline and lede)

New York City, Apr 12 (EFE).- The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has identified a “person of interest” in Tuesday’s Brooklyn subway incident in which 10 people were shot and another 13 were injured.

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig at a press conference named the person of interest as Frank James, 62. He had rented a U-Haul van that may be connected to the shooting – the key to the van was found at the crime scene.

“We are looking to determine if he has any connection to the train. We know Mr James rented that U-Haul truck in Philadelphia,” Essig said.

The Manhattan-bound train was pulling into the 36th Street station in Brooklyn at 8:24 am when “witnesses state the male opened up two smoke grenades, tossed them on the subway floor, brandishes a Glock 9-millimeter handgun,” Essig said.

“He then fired that weapon 33 times, striking at least 10 people” – seven males and three females – before he fled, the police chief added.

An additional 13 people suffered injuries related to smoke inhalation, falling down or panic attacks.

From the scene, investigators recovered a Glock 9mm handgun, three extended Glock-type magazines, 33 discharged shell casings, 15 bullets, five bullet fragments, two detonated smoke grenades, two non-detonated smoke grenades, and a hatchet, among other things, Essig said.

The suspect “is still on the loose,” New York state Governor Kathy Hochul said.

“This person is dangerous. This is an active shooter situation right now in the city of New York,” she said during an earlier press conference near the crime scene in the Big Apple borough of Brooklyn.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell sought to ease New Yorkers’ fears.

“I want to begin by assuring the public that there are currently no known explosive devices on our subway trains and this is not being investigated as an act of terrorism at this time,” she said during the briefing.

None of the injured suffered life-threatening injuries, Sewell said, while acting fire department commissioner Laura Kavanagh said that five of the 10 with gunshot wounds were in “critical but stable condition.”

President Joe Biden said: “We’re not letting up until we find the perpetrator.”

Images shared on social media showed people covered in blood being treated at the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, pledged that the NYPD will find the suspect.

“We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized even by a single individual,” the former NYPD captain said in a video. EFE

nqs/dr-tw

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