Police arrest suspect after New York subway shooting and smoke bomb attack

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.

New York City Police Department officers handcuff subway shooting suspect Frank R. James, 62, in the Greenwich Village section, of New York, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. Photo / AP

Police had initially said Tuesday that James was being sought for questioning because he had rented a van possibly connected to the attack, but weren't sure whether he was responsible for the shooting.

Mayor Eric Adams said on Wednesday morning that investigators had upgraded James to a suspect, but did not offer details beyond citing "new information that became available to the team".

New York State governor Kathy Hochul described the attacker as "depraved".

"This morning, ordinary New Yorkers woke up in the anticipation of a relatively normal day. That sense of normalcy was brutally disrupted by an individual so depraved of heart that they had no care about the individuals assaulted," said Hochul.

The gunman sent off smoke grenades in a crowded subway car and then fired at least 33 shots with a 9 mm handgun, police said. Five gunshot victims were in critical condition but all 10 wounded in the shooting were expected to survive. At least a dozen others who escaped gunshot wounds were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries.

A Crime Stoppers bulletin displaying photos of Frank R. James, identified by police as the renter of a U-Haul van linked to the subway attack. Photo /New York City Police via AP

The shooter escaped in the chaos, but left behind numerous clues, including the gun, ammunition magazines, a hatchet, smoke grenades, gasoline, and the key to a U-Haul van.

That key led investigators to James, a New York City-area native who had more recent addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin.

Federal investigators determined the gun used in the shooting was purchased by James at a pawn shop — a licensed firearms dealer — in the Columbus, Ohio, area in 2011, a law enforcement official said.

A person being attended to in the subway car in the Brooklyn borough of New York after the attack. Photo / Will B Wylde, AP

The van was found, unoccupied, near a station where investigators determined the gunman had entered the subway system. No explosives or firearms were found in the van, a law enforcement official said. Police did find other items, including pillows, suggesting he may have been sleeping or planned to sleep in the van, the official said.

Investigators believe James drove up from Philadelphia on Monday and have reviewed surveillance video showing a man matching his physical description coming out of the van early Tuesday morning, the official said. Other video shows James entering a subway station in Brooklyn with a large bag, the official said.

In addition to analysing financial and telephone records connected to James, investigators were reviewing hours of rambling, profanity-filled videos James posted on YouTube and other social media platforms — replete with violent language and bigoted comments, some against other black people — as they tried to discern a motive.

In one video, posted a day before the attack, James criticises crime against black people and says drastic action is needed.

"You got kids going in here now taking machine guns and mowing down innocent people," James says. "It's not going to get better until we make it better," he said, adding that he thought things would only change if certain people were "stomped, kicked and tortured" out of their "comfort zone".

In another video he says, "this nation was born in violence, it's kept alive by violence or the threat thereof and it's going to die a violent death. There's nothing going to stop that".

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the posts "concerning" and officials tightened security for Adams, who was already isolating following a positive Covid-19 test Sunday.

Several of James' videos mention New York's subways. A February 20 video says the mayor and governor's plan to address homelessness and safety in the subway system "is doomed for failure" and refers to himself as a "victim" of the city's mental health programmes. A January 25 video criticises Adams' plan to end gun violence.

The Brooklyn subway station where passengers fled the smoke-filled train in the attack was open as usual Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the violence.

Commuter Jude Jacques, who takes the D train to his job as a fire safety director some two blocks from the shooting scene, said he prays every morning but had a special request on Wednesday.

"I said, 'God, everything is in your hands,"' Jacques said. "I was antsy, and you can imagine why. Everybody is scared because it just happened."

How Subway attack unfolded

New York City police commissioner Keechant Sewell said the incident unfolded at 8.24am NY time as an N line train waited to enter 36th Street station in the suburb of Sunset Park.

"An individual on that train donned what would appear to be a gas mask. He then took a canister out of his bag and opened it. The train at that time began to fill with smoke. He then opened fire, striking multiple people on the Subway train and on the platform."

The suspect is described as being around 1.7 metres tall, black and wearing a green construction type vest and hooded sweatshirt. His clothing led some to believe he deliberately dressed either as a construction worker or a Subway staff member.

There had earlier been reports of explosives on the train but police have said there were no known such devices on the system.

— Kristoffer Kumm (@Kristofferkumm) April 12, 2022

At a press conference, Sewell initially said the incident was not being investigated as terrorism. But when pressed by reporters about how confident police could be that the attack wasn't terrorist-related, given the perpetrator was at large, she added that the force was not "ruling anything out".

New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was not at the scene as he is isolating after contracting Covid-19, said the suspect detonated smoke bombs to create havoc.

"We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorised even by a single individual."

The New York Fire Department said of the 16 people injured 10 had gunshot wounds with the remainder suffering from smoke inhalation, shrapnel wounds or panic.

None of the injuries were said to be life-threatening but authorities cautioned that at that time the incident had only just occurred.

The N Subway line operates from the famous Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn through the borough's downtown area and then onto Queens via Manhattan's Times Square.

A passenger waiting on a train at the platform told the New York Post that she saw a man "drop some kind of cylinder that sparked at the top".

The woman, called Clair, said she "lost count" of the number of rounds she heard ringing out as the man opened fire.

Yav Montano was on a train pulling into the station when pandemonium broke out.

He told CNN he heard "what I thought was fireworks, but now hearing it was gunshots I'm thankful I hid behind one of the chairs".

He described the horrific scenes after disembarking the train.

"There was blood on the floor. There was a lot of blood trailing on the floor. And at the time in the moment, I did not think it was a shooting because it sounded like fireworks," he said.

"All I saw was people trampling each other, trampling over each other, trying to get into the door which was locked and just a lot of panic, but thankfully, the train moved quickly to the next stop and everyone filed off the train in a rush."

There are growing concerns about rising crime rates in New York which Mayor Adams has pledged to tackle.

Since the beginning of 2022, there have been 375 crimes on public transport, a rise of 73 per cent compared with 2021 and a 41 per cent rise in major crimes, reported CNN. — AP