The man suspected of shooting into a New York subway, wounding 23, including 10 with bullets, was arrested Wednesday and will stand trial for a “terrorist attack.”
The suspect, who wreaked havoc on the subway system the day before, was arrested in Manhattan thanks to a complaint, according to NYPD.
“We had it”, welcomed the Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, at the press conference, awaiting the turning point on the issue of the fight against crime, he who had made it an electoral campaign theme to be elected last year.
Police had been conducting a more than 24-hour manhunt for Frank James, a 62-year-old African American accused of multiple shootings on an N train at the 36th Street station in south Brooklyn.
The man, known to the police, had already been arrested 12 times in New York and New Jersey, including for “sexual offences”, “theft” or “disturbing public order”, the authorities specified.
But he had never been convicted of a crime in New York State.
He risks life imprisonment
It is from now on “on federal trial for his act, a terrorist attack on public transportation”, Federal Police Officer Michael Driscoll announced.
“He will appear in federal court in Brooklyn and, if convicted, face life in prison,” said Attorney Breon Peace.
His motives remain obscure
Frank James took down a YouTube page, dubbed “prophetoftruth88” (prophet of truth), on Wednesday morning for “violating the community rules” of the site.
He has published several videos in which we see him launch long, sometimes rambling and vehement rants, in which he evokes racial issues, insecurity in New York, especially on the subway, and attacks homosexuals, or the new mayor Eric Adams.
33 shells fired
At around 8:30 (12:30 GMT) on Tuesday, at a time when subway trains are crowded, the individual, wearing a gas mask, ignited two devices that smoked the car, then shot the passengers as the train was entering the station
“We were really lucky that it wasn’t much more serious,” said New York City Police Chief Keechant Sewell, summing up the authorities’ relief. Suspect 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.
Investigators found a handgun and three magazines at the scene.
The attack comes as New York has faced a crime spike from the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides rising from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, although the annual toll remains well below the more than 2,000 per year registered in the early 1990s.
Shootings have also remained on the rise since the beginning of the year, rising from 260 to 296 in the first quarter of 2022, according to police data, some of which have made a splash, such as the Friday death of a 17-year-old girl. , shot and killed outside a high school in the Bronx.
