NEW YORK – A suspect who opened fire on a Brooklyn subway last year, injuring 10 passengers in a rush-hour attack that rocked New York City, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal terrorism charges.
Frank James, who had posted online that he was the “Doomsayer,” appeared in federal court in Brooklyn and admitted pulling the trigger on a Manhattan-bound train as it moved between stations on April 12, 2022.
He didn’t have a plea deal and prosecutors try to jail him for decades.
The 63-year-old man, dressed in beige prison overalls and black-rimmed glasses, said he only intended to cause grievous bodily harm, not death. He pleaded guilty to all 11 counts in the indictment of him, including 10 counts of committing a terrorist attack on a public transit system, one count for each passenger injured. He had previously promised to fight the charges.
Several victims of the shooting were in court to plead guilty to James, but none wanted to talk to reporters afterward.
IN DETAIL: THE SHOOTING AND THE SEARCH FOR THE SUSPECT
In the publicAssistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said James “intended to inflict maximum damage at the height of rush hour.”
According to prosecutors, James detonated a pair of smoke grenades and fired a barrage of shots at random inside the train, drawing blood on passengers as it moved between stations in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
Dressed as a maintenance worker, James then fled in the fog and confusion, sparking a 30-hour citywide manhunt that ended when he called the police himself.
James was arrested in Manhattan the day after the shooting after calling a police tip line to tell his whereabouts. Police were already searching the area James was in after a sharp-eyed high school photography student called to report a man, thought to be the suspect, sitting on a bench with a duffel bag.
Prior to the shooting, James posted dozens of videos online ranting against race, violence, and his struggle with mental illness, sometimes adopting the moniker “Prophet of Doom.”
He denounced the treatment he received from black people and spoke about how so frustrated he was: “I should have gotten a gun and started shooting.” In one video, he appeared to be in a packed New York City subway car, raising his finger to point at passengers one by one.
James’ attorneys informed the judge Dec. 21 that he wanted to plead guilty, a radical departure from his previous pledge to fight the charges at trial. James was incarcerated after the shooting in a federal prison a few blocks from where the attack took place.
In a prison interview with the Associated Press in August, James opened up about his lifelong struggle with mental health and the notoriety he gained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he befriended the R&B star in disgrace R Kelly.
“It’s going to be a long case,” an optimistic and bespectacled James told the AP. “People still don’t have enough information to judge me.”
“In general, I’m a good person at heart,” she added. “I’ve never hurt anyone.”
But prosecutors say James planned the shooting for years and terrorized all of New York City with an attack that disrupted the morning ritual of driving and endangered the lives of dozens.
Prosecutors said a large body of evidence linked James to the attack. His credit card, cell phone and the key to a van he rented were found at the scene of the shooting. Officers also found the gun they said was used in the shooting; Trails show that James purchased the gun from a licensed arms dealer in Ohio in 2011.
In court documents, prosecutors suggested that James had the wherewithal to carry out further attacks, noting that he stored ammunition and other gun-related items in a Philadelphia storage facility. The New York City native had lived in Milwaukee and Philadelphia before the shootings.
