Mayor Eric Adams is due to hold a virtual press conference on Friday to thank front-line workers for their handling of the shooting and its aftermath.
In court on Thursday, 62-year-old Frank James was denied bail and he was not charged with violating a law banning terrorism and violent attacks on public transport. He was arrested a day earlier in the East Village of Manhattan after calling police; hours earlier, a teenager called Crime Stoppers to say he had seen him.
Police say James boarded a train during a rapid shooting Tuesday morning in Brooklyn, fired smoke grenades and fired 33 shots, killing 10 people.
Twenty-nine people have been sent to hospitals, including 10 who were shot and 19 others who were injured, mostly from inhaling smoke, falling or panicking, officials said. The four people who were still hospitalized on Thursday are in stable condition, according to hospital officials.
Although officials did not disclose the motive for one of the most violent attacks in the city’s subway, they cited YouTube videos in which James shared his views on violence, mass shootings and mental health. James, a black man, says in the videos that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and supported hatred of African Americans and other people he believed had disgraced him. In a video released in February, he criticized the Adams administration’s plan to tackle subway safety and homelessness, saying it was “doomed to failure”.
City officials want to improve security in the subway system, the mayor told CNN on Wednesday, noting that the process will include research into technology that can find out if someone is carrying a weapon.
“But it is extremely challenging to identify anyone who enters the subway system because of the vastness of our system,” he said. On the day of the shooting, more than 3 million people were riding the system, which included passengers using the Staten Island Railroad, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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Prosecutors: Attack “carefully planned”
At a hearing at James on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Winick described the attack as “deliberate and carefully planned.”
Prosecutors also say James poses a risk of escape and danger to the community, according to a letter sent by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace to a federal judge.
“The defendant made a preliminary mass shooting in the New York subway and then fled the scene, storing ammunition and other dangerous items in his warehouse,” the letter said.
Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Greenberg warned not to rush the sentence.
“We are all still learning what happened on this train,” she told the courthouse. “What we do know is this: yesterday, Mr James saw a picture of him in the news. He called Crime Stoppers to help. He told them where he was. Initial reports to the press and police in cases like this are often inaccurate. James has the right to a fair trial and we will ensure that he gets one. “
The shooting, which James is accused of, took place when a train was traveling from 59th Street Station to 36th Street Station in Brooklyn shortly before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The suspected shooter wore a yellow helmet, an orange reflective jacket and a surgical mask while activating at least one smoke device and started shooting at people with a Glock pistol, according to a criminal complaint. Witnesses saw the suspect wearing a gas mask, the complaint said.
The passengers tried to escape the smoke engulfing the train by running to one end of the car.
The doors would only open two minutes later when the train reached 36th Street and passengers fled the train as smoke followed.
Other victims with bloody wounds fell on the platform while shouting for medical help. Blood spilled on the subway platform as people sat and lay on the platform, photos taken at the scene show.
Evidence linking the suspects to the shooting
James was initially identified as a person of interest after authorities determined he had rented a U-Haul van whose keys were found at the scene. Investigators declared him a suspect on Wednesday morning after learning he had bought a gun left at the scene.
Authorities found a bag containing a Glock pistol, a plastic container with petrol, a flashlight, a U-Haul key and a number of bank cards, as well as another bag containing fireworks, the complaint said.
James bought the gun in Ohio in 2011, the bank cards had James’ name on them, and the U-Haul key was linked to a van James had rented in Philadelphia, according to the complaint.
The neon construction jacket left on the subway platform had a Philadelphia warehouse receipt registered to James, the complaint said.
Federal prosecutors believe he went to a warehouse full of ammunition and weapons the night before the attack, according to court documents. A search of the unit revealed additional ammunition and “a whole 9 mm threaded pistol that allows a silencer or suppressor to be attached.”
Hours before James was arrested, 17-year-old Jack Griffin said he was on a field trip with his high school photography class when he spotted the suspect sitting on a bench in lower Manhattan.
Griffin sent a Crime Stoppers signal to New York City Police at about 10:30 a.m. And although James was not caught for several more hours, New York City Police later told him the council helped narrow the network from his location, he said. .
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I was looking for things to shoot (with a camera) and I found probably one of the most wanted people.”
CNN’s Carol Alvarado, Chris Boyet, Travis Caldwell, Alaa Elasar, Rob Frechet, Jason Hannah, Chris Hippenstill, Artemis Moschagian, Paul P. Murphy, Peter Nichies, Sarah Ashley O’Brien, Sharif Paget, Ion Scane Pomrenze and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
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