The man suspected of shooting in the New York City subway during rush hour Tuesday morning, injuring 23 people, including 10 with bullets, was arrested Wednesday, several American media reported citing police sources.
• Read also: Shooting: terror in the New York subway
The suspect, who had wreaked havoc on the subway the day before, has been found in Manhattan, according to NBC television.
“We will continue to tighten the trap around him and stop him”, promised in the morning the Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, expected at the turning point on the issue of the fight against crime, he who had made it a campaign theme to be elected on Last year.
Police had been searching for more than 24 hours for Frank James, a 62-year-old African American accused of repeatedly shooting at an N train at the 36th Street station in south Brooklyn.
On Tuesday, the NYPD released photos of this individual, Frank James, indicating that he had rented the van found in Brooklyn and whose key was discovered at the crime scene.
On Wednesday, New Yorkers received an “urgent” message on their phones asking them to provide any useful information to investigators. A $50,000 reward had been placed on the table.
- Listen to the interview with Martine Hébert, General Delegate of Quebec in New York on QUB radio:
No choice
The man has posted several videos on YouTube, where he utters long, sometimes virulent, political rants and criticizes Eric Adams, who pushed the police to tighten security around the mayor.
As the hunt for the shooter, described as “dangerous” the day before, continued, millions of New Yorkers drove to work, some posting selfies on social media to show that life was returning to normal.
“I really have no choice, I have to take the subway. I hope today will be safer. It felt a little emptier,” said passenger Laura Swalm, 49, who lives in nearby New Jersey.
“I’ve always been paying attention to my surroundings since 9/11 (2001). But there have been more accidents on the docks recently, so I’m paying more attention,” she told AFP.
The Twitter account of the New York City Subway, one of the largest networks in the world, announced early Wednesday morning the return of “full service” on all lines, especially at the “36th street” station in south Brooklyn, where the has raged and where several lines pass.
33 shells fired
At around 8:30 (12:30 GMT) on Tuesday morning, at a time when subway trains are crowded, the individual, who was wearing a gas mask, turned on two devices that smoked the car, then he shot at the passengers as the train entered the station.
“We were really lucky it wasn’t much more serious,” NYPD Chief Keechant Sewell said, summing up authorities’ relief after the attack in which the suspect – still at large – fired 33 shots.
“All you see is black smoke, and I turned right, and I saw this guy in a mask,” one of the victims, Hourari Benkada, testified to CNN from her hospital bed.
“Filming lasted about a minute, I’d say about ten shots (…). I’ve never heard so many shots come out of a gun… (…) It probably had extended magazines or another firearm”, added this man, hit by a bullet in the knee. Investigators are on the spot they found a pistol and three magazines.
Tuesday’s attack came as New York faced a spike in crime from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides jumping from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, though the annual toll remains well below of the more than 2,000 a year recorded in the early 1990s.
