Accused Subway Shooter Frank James Held Without Bail, Charged With Terrorizing NYC Subway Riders
The man suspected of opening fire on a subway train in New York was ordered held on a permanent order of detention following his initial court appearance on Thursday (April 14).
After a manhunt that lasted a day, Frank James, 62, was taken into custody on a street in Manhattan on Wednesday without incident by NYPD officers, acting on a tip from an individual who saw him walking the streets.
“The defendant terrifyingly opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way the city hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” Assistant U.S. attorney Sara K. Winik told a judge at the arraignment in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y. “The defendant’s attack was premeditated, was carefully planned, and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city.”
James was arrested in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, more than 24 hours after 10 people were shot and 13 more injured in a crowded subway car in Brooklyn. According to ABC News, He was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on mass transportation and was transferred to federal custody. If convicted, James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
While at his first court appearance, James did not enter a plea and only answered a few yes or no questions.
According to authorities, James was born in New York and has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years.
"As alleged, the defendant committed a heinous and premeditated attack on ordinary New Yorkers during their morning subway commute," Peace said in a statement Wednesday, according to the news outlet. "All New Yorkers have the right to expect that they will be safe as they travel throughout our great city and use our vital transportation systems."
The attack James is accused of alarmed New York, already reeling from stark increases in violent crime across its Five Boroughs during a morning commute. Police said James boarded a subway train in Brooklyn, and ignited two smoke bombs as the train moved with unwitting passengers aboard. As the train pulled into a hub station in the Sunset Park neighborhood, he pulled out a Glock 17 9mm pistol and fired 33 shots, hitting 10 people. Another 13 were injured from smoke inhalation or from trying to escape. He was unable to fire more shots because the gun jammed.
However, there were no life threatening injuries from the shooting, according to NYPD officials, and all of the victims are expected to recover. In a press conference after his arrest, James Essig, NYPD Chief of Detectives said James had an address in Wisconsin, but also had connections to Ohio, New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
He also has a lengthy arrest record with nine prior arrests in New York dating from 1992 to 1998 ranging from possession of burglary tools, a criminal sex act, theft of service and criminal tampering. He also has three arrests in New Jersey in 1991, 1992 and 2007 for trespass, larceny and disorderly conduct.
According to law enforcement records, he purchased the Glock in Ohio in 2011.
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It is still unclear what James’ particular motive was in the attack, but it does not seem that he was targeting anyone on the train in which he opened fire. In the months and weeks leading up to the violence, James posted a series of incendiary videos on YouTube focusing on various societal problems. In one he singled out New York mayor Eric Adams, blaming him, among other things, homelessness in the subway system.
“What are you doing, brother? What’s happening with this homeless situation…Every car I went to wa[s] loaded with homeless people. It was so bad, I couldn’t even stand,” James said, according to court documents. In other videos, he launched tirades about other topics ranging from the war in Ukraine, to race and Black social morality to general crime and violence. In one instance he even contemplates a violent attack, but did not specify who it would be against.
If convicted James faces a sentence of life imprisonment. His attorney, federal defender Mia Eisner-Grynberg agreed with his being held without bail. But his defense could later seek bail, according to the Associated Press.
