Police say they nonetheless don’t know the motive behind Tuesday’s Brooklyn massacre
Police in New York Metropolis have tracked down and arrested Frank R. James, suspected of firing over 30 rounds right into a crowded subway station on Tuesday. He faces federal costs for a terrorist or violent assault on public transit, and life in jail if convicted, prosecutors stated on Wednesday afternoon.
James, 62, was taken into custody in Manhattan’s East Village on Wednesday, about 30 hours after he allegedly shot up the 36th Avenue Station in Brooklyn. Whereas nobody was killed, 10 individuals had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds, whereas as many as 19 extra had suffered different accidents. The attacker fired a minimum of 33 occasions and set off smoke grenades in a crowded rail automotive.
US Lawyer Breon Peace stated that James shall be charged with a federal offense, underneath a statute that outlaws terrorism and violent assaults in mass transit methods. Peace stated that there was no indication James had ties to terrorist organizations, home or worldwide, and his motive remained unclear, nonetheless.
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Subway taking pictures suspect recognized
In accordance with police, the aged African-American man has a protracted prior legal historical past, with 12 arrests in New York and New Jersey for issues like housebreaking, larceny, trespassing, a “legal intercourse act,” and theft, relationship again to the early 1990s.
The gun used within the taking pictures was tracked to a pawn store in Ohio, the place James purchased it – legally – in 2011. Police imagine he drove as much as New York from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday, in a rented U-Haul van that was discovered exterior the station.
In accordance with AP, the authorities are at the moment investigating his monetary and phone data, in addition to hours of “rambling, profanity-filled movies James posted on YouTube and different social media platforms” seeking a motive.
One video, posted on Monday, exhibits James criticizing crime in opposition to black Individuals and urging drastic motion. “It’s not going to get higher till we make it higher,” he stated, in keeping with AP, including that issues would solely change if sure individuals had been “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “consolation zone.”
“This nation was born in violence, it’s saved alive by violence or the menace thereof and it’s going to die a violent loss of life. There’s nothing going to cease that,” he reportedly stated in one other video.
It was not attainable to independently confirm these stories, as James’ YouTube channel has been banned for “violating group tips.”
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A number of injured in NY subway taking pictures (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
AP stated that in different movies and social media posts James talked about NYC subways, referred to himself as a “sufferer” of town’s psychological well being packages, and criticized the brand new mayor Eric Adams – additionally African-American – for his plan to finish gun violence.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell has known as the movies “regarding” and bolstered Adams’ safety element, because the mayor quarantined with Covid-19.
In accordance with Newsweek, the FBI flagged James as a possible terrorist and put him on a watchlist, solely to clear him after a number of interviews someday in 2019.
