The suspect, Frank James, a 62-year-old African American, had been wanted for more than 24 hours and was arrested in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.
What happened on Tuesday?
Tuesday morning, around 8:30 AM in New York, on a crowded N-line train, the suspect, who was wearing a gas mask, lit two devices that smoked the car and then shot the passengers when the train pulled into the 36th Street station in south Brooklyn, 23 were injured, 10 of whom were shot. According to authorities, 33 bullets were fired.
Several teenagers were among the hospitalized victims, state governor Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday evening.
23 people were injured in the shooting on the New York subway on Tuesday.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP
What do we know about the alleged shooter?
The police had launched a manhunt to find the suspect as soon as possible by posting his photo on social networks. Law enforcement quickly escalated to Frank James, reports the “New York Times”† A credit card in his name was found at the scene of the shooting, along with the key to a van he had rented, a handgun, three rounds of ammunition, an ax and explosives.
The suspect is not unknown to the police. He has been arrested 12 times in New York and New Jersey, including for sex crimes, theft, public order, accurate CNN† However, he was never convicted of a felony in upstate New York, which allowed him to purchase a gun.
The 60-year-old regularly posted videos on his YouTube channel, called “prophetoftruth88”, which can be translated as “prophet of truth”. It was removed from the site Wednesday morning for “violating community rules”. According to the American media, which could view these videos, Frank James made racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments and spoke about the insecurity in New York. The city’s new mayor, Eric Adams, was also one of his recurring targets, the New York Times points out.
In the latest video, posted the day before the shooting, he explained that he “had endured a lot of crap, where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to see people die right before my eyes. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don’t want to go to a fucking prison,” CNN said. Last week he said: “We need to see more mass shootings. Yes… We need to see more.”
What risk does he run?
Frank James, whose motives have yet to be clarified, is due to appear in court this Thursday in a Brooklyn court. He is now “under federal prosecution for his act of a terrorist attack on public transport,” the federal police said.
