Frank James, the accused of opening fire in a car in the New York Subway, appeared Thursday before a judge, who ordered that he be left without the right to bail.
James, 62, simply answered “yes” to general questions of the law at a brief hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.
He was arrested Wednesday in Manhattan, accused by authorities of setting off smoke bombs and firing dozens of shots Tuesday morning on a crowded train. Ten people were injured.
He is charged under a law that classifies attacks on public transport as terrorists, although authorities say they have no evidence linking him to any terrorist organization.
“Defendant’s attack was premeditated, carefully planned, and caused terror among the victims and throughout our city,” said US Attorney Sara K. Winik.
Prosecutors called the attack premeditated. They said James was wearing a construction worker’s helmet and vest and that he abandoned them after the attack to avoid being recognized. And that he had the means to make further attacks, with ammunition and other firearms in a warehouse in Philadelphia.
His attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, accepted the decision to hold him without bail for now. At the request of her lawyers, Judge Roanne Mann said she will ask the prison service to provide him with “psychiatric care” and magnesium pills because James suffers from leg cramps.
The defendant did not respond to questions from reporters as he was being taken from a police station to a transport or that he would be taken to a federal prison.
