The man suspected of having fired in the New York subway at rush hour on Tuesday morning, causing chaos and injuring 23, including 10, by bullets, was arrested on Wednesday and will be prosecuted for “terrorist attack”, authorities announced.
Wanted for more than 24 hours, the suspect, Frank James, a 62-year-old African-American, was arrested in the East Village district of Manhattan, thanks to a report, according to the New York police.
“We got it”, welcomed, during a press conference, the Democratic Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, expected at the turn on the theme of the fight against crime, he who had made it a campaign theme to be elected last year.
At around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, on a crowded N line train, the suspect, who was wearing a gas mask, ignited two devices that smoked the car, then shot passengers as the train entered the station 36th street in south Brooklyn, injuring 23, including 10 by gunfire.
Among the hospitalized victims were several teenagers, state governor Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday evening.
Tirades on YouTube
Known to the police, Frank James had already been arrested 12 times in New York and New Jersey, including for sexual offenses, theft or disturbing public order, authorities said, but he had never been convicted of a felony in New York State.
The man, who will appear in court on Thursday in a Brooklyn court, is now “under federal prosecution for his act, a terrorist attack on public transport”, announced the federal police officer Michael Driscoll.
If convicted, the New York native faces “a life sentence,” prosecutor Breon Peace said.
His motives remain to be clarified. Frank James had a YouTube page, called “prophetoftruth88” (prophet of truth) and deleted Wednesday morning for “violation of the community rules” of the site. He has published multiple videos where we see him launching long tirades, sometimes rambling and vehement, in which he evokes racial issues, insecurity in New York, especially on the subway, and attacks homosexual people, or the new mayor, Eric Adams.
33 bullets fired
“We were really lucky that it wasn’t much more serious,” New York Police Chief Keechant Sewell said on Tuesday, summing up the authorities’ relief. The suspect fired 33 rounds.
On site, investigators found three magazines and a Glock 17 pistol, “purchased legally in Ohio by an individual named Frank Robert James”, according to the indictment.
“All you see is black smoke. I turned to the right, and I saw this guy with a mask ”, testified on CNN one of the victims, Hourari Benkada, from his hospital bed.
“The shooting lasted about a minute […]. I’ve never heard so many shots come out of a handgun… […] He probably had extended magazines or another firearm, ”added this man, hit in the knee.
The attack came as New York has grappled with a spike in crime since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides rising from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, though the annual toll remains strong below the more than 2000 per year recorded in the early 1990s.
Shootings have remained on the rise since the start of the year, rising from 260 to 296 in the first quarter of 2022, according to police figures. Some have made an impression, such as the one resulting in the death on Friday of a 17-year-old girl, shot dead outside a high school in the Bronx.
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