NEW YORK SHOOTING. On Wednesday April 13 at 8 p.m., the New York police announced the arrest of the suspected shooter after the shooting in the subway which injured around twenty people on Tuesday. He was taken into custody and will be prosecuted for “terrorist attack”. He faces life imprisonment.
[Mise à jour le 14 avril 2022 à 10h30] After a manhunt that lasted 24 hours in the streets and subways of the city, the New York police finally arrested a man in the Manhattan district on April 13 (according to the NBC television channel). He is the only suspect of the tragic event of the day before: shootings which occurred in a subway train of the line N at the level of the station “36th street”, located in the south of the district of Brooklyn, in New York. This shooting in 33 bullets injured 23 people including 10 by bullets. No deaths are to be deplored, a reassuring news on which the New York Post gave explanations: the weapon of the assailant would have blocked in the middle of the shooting, probably preventing him from causing a real bloodbath (according to police sources). “It’s lucky she got stuck because otherwise we could have been talking about a lot more people in hospitals or worse,” it was reported to the New York daily. Remarks shared by Keechant Sewell, the chief of the police of New York (NYPD), who said she was very relieved: “We were really lucky that it was not much more serious”.
At 8 p.m. on Wednesday April 13, the American media broadcast the news of his arrest. For the moment, he has simply been placed in police custody, while an investigation is opened and he will be prosecuted for “terrorist attacks and other violence against […] public transportation.” Federal prosecutor Breon Peace held a press conference to clarify what awaits the suspect: “He will appear in federal court in Brooklyn and, if convicted, will face a prison sentence of life”. Prior to this arrest, the local police were actively looking for a man, of whom they released a photo, calling him a “person of interest” in the investigations, without speaking of the alleged perpetrator or the main suspect.
The contours of the shooting that occurred are beginning to take shape. It was 8:27 a.m. in New York (2:27 p.m. in France) on April 12 when the police were called after a person was shot in the subway, in the Brooklyn district. According to a police source reported by the New-York Times, the alleged shooter, who was wearing a gas mask at the time, allegedly set off a smoke bomb inside a metro train, before opening fire inside the train. It was then at the “36th Street” station that the passengers panicked off the train. The “36th street” station is a station in the south of the city that is particularly busy because of the five subway lines that stop there, in the Sunset Park district. It is located at the intersection of 4th Avenue and 36th Street. On the spot, a handgun and three chargers were discovered, as was the key to a vehicle, corresponding to an abandoned van in the neighborhood after being rented in Philadelphia, two hours south of New York.
Very soon after the attack, the New York police set out to find the alleged perpetrator. After a first brief description, the police said they were looking for a man named Franck James, a 62-year-old African American, measuring about 1m65 and “heavy build”, wearing a green and orange vest of sing, as well as a gray hoodie.
Before the arrest of the suspect and while the hunt continued in New York, journalists from the New York Times managed to reach the suspect’s sister by telephone, then broadcasting an important interview for the progress of the investigation. In fact, his sister confirmed elements presupposed by the police, namely the age of the suspect: 62 years old, his lifestyle: “he often moved from town to town, never staying too long in one place”, but also his relationship status: that his brother had “been alone all his life”, and that they had practically lost touch. However, she said she was very surprised that he could have committed such an act, confiding in the New York Times: “I don’t think he would do something like that, it’s not in his nature.”
Furthermore, we now know that the suspect is indeed the man who posted videos of political messages on YouTube. He staged himself in long political tirades, evoking social problems such as racial issues, insecurity in New York (especially in the subway…), and attacking homosexual people. These videos, if they were only a sharing of his opinion via monologues, were very virulent and could take on the appearance of threats, in particular against the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, repeatedly criticized in these videos. The police have also reinforced security around the latter.
Is this a premeditated shooting by an organized group or a gang? The police and the authorities of New York agree for the moment to say not. “He seems to have acted alone,” said Democratic Mayor Eric Adams on April 13 on MSNBC, who took office on January 1, promising to fight crime in the metropolis. On Tuesday, April 12, we learned that the suspect had rented; alone, the van found in Brooklyn and whose key was discovered at the crime scene. These revelations were released by the NYPD, along with photos of the suspect so he could be spotted more easily. This case is therefore that of a progressive investigation which distils information in dribs and drabs: after the photos on Tuesday, New Yorkers received messages on their phones on Wednesday April 13 giving the description of this “62-year-old man”, by asking to alert the police to provide any information useful to the investigation.
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