The detainee identified as Frank R. James, a 62-year-old African-American born in New York, will appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday, the court announced.
“We got him,” exclaimed Mayor Eric Adams after the arrest of the most wanted man in New York since Tuesday morning in the middle of rush hour, he activated smoke grenades and opened fire on the passengers of a subway car that entered the “36 Street” station in Brooklyn.
His arrest, on a street in southern Manhattan, was possible thanks to citizen collaboration. Several witnesses identified him at a McDonalds and later walking down the street.
“Mr. James now faces federal indictment for his actions. A terrorist attack on the mass transit (system),” said Michael J. Driscoll, acting assistant director of the FBI New York office.
According to New York prosecutor Breon Peace, if found guilty, he faces life in prison.
This big man in blue and a black cap when he was arrested, left his credit card and the keys of the truck he had rented at the scene of the attack.
– Criminal history –
According to New York Police Detective Chief James Essig, the suspect has a long history of arrests for possession of burglary tools, criminal sexual acts, robbery, criminal manipulation or conduct disorder.
James had posted several videos on YouTube in which he appears giving long, and sometimes aggressive, political harangues and criticisms of Mayor Adams. His page was closed on Wednesday for “violating the guidelines” of YouTube.
James’s sister, Catherine James Robinson, told The New York Times that she was “shocked” to see her brother in the press. “I never thought she could do something like that,” she acknowledged, after specifying that she has not had contact with him for a long time.
– “Normal” –
The New York subway returned to “normality” on Wednesday, said the transit authority of the city, of almost nine million inhabitants.
But some users were afraid. “I was hesitant and I waited 20 minutes to get a taxi and none came and Uber was like $60, so I said ‘ok, I’ll take my chances on the subway,'” Zeina Awedikian, 38, told AFP.
“A lot of people who live far away don’t have a choice. It depends on the metro, you can’t stop taking it, regardless of whether there is an incident or not,” said Daniela, 29, originally from Bosnia, who admits that she can’t help but think “that one day I may not return to house with my children”.
But others were more defiant, like Dennis Sughrue, a 56-year-old New Yorker. “No one is going to make me give up the subway. The subway is in my DNA and I feel more committed than ever to New York and to the subway,” he told AFP, emerging from one of the nerve centers of the New York subway at Grand Central Station.
– Gun, ammunition and an ax –
The suspect fired 33 shots, according to police, who found a Glock 17 9mm pistol, three additional ammunition clips and an ax at the scene of the attack. 10 people were injured by gunshots -there is no fear for the life of any- and another 13 due to smoke inhalation and other damage suffered while fleeing the scene.
“What you see is like a smoke bomb, black smoke that explodes, and then… people (who) rush to the back,” one of the shooting victims, Hourari Benkada, described for CNN, referring to to the stampede of passengers towards the door at the end of the car.
Benkada said he got on the first car at 59th Street and sat next to the suspect.
“I was pushed and that’s when I got shot in the back of my knee,” he said.
New York has been registering this year an increase in shootings and the rebound in violent crimes. Until April 3, the incidents with weapons rose to 296, against 260 in the same period last year, according to police statistics.
Lax laws and the constitutional right to bear arms have complicated attempts to curb the proliferation of weapons in private hands in the United States, despite the fact that most Americans favor greater control.
