(Bloomberg) -- New York City law enforcement officials have arrested Frank James in Manhattan in connection with Tuesday's shooting at a Brooklyn subway station that injured more than two dozen people. He faces a federal terrorism charge.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday during a press briefing.
James, 62, with addresses in Philadelphia and the Milwaukee area, was arrested by law enforcement Wednesday afternoon. Police responded to a tip that he was at a McDonald's in Manhattan's East Village. When officers didn't see him at the fast-food restaurant, police said they drove around until they found him on the corner and took him into custody “with no incident.”
The arrest capped a dramatic manhunt that stretched nearly 30 hours and set the city on edge, as trains were suspended, citywide alerts dinged cell phones with warnings about a shooting suspect at large, and schoolchildren were told to shelter in place for most of the day. Subway ridership dropped by nearly 10% from the week prior, as anxious New Yorkers avoided a transit system already struggling to come back after the pandemic kept millions of people at home and led to an uptick in violent crime.
Read More: NYC Shooting Piles Pressure on Adams to Ease Worries Over Safety
During Tuesday's chaotic morning rush-hour attack, the suspect pulled on a gas mask and detonated two smoke canisters as a Manhattan-bound N train was pulling into the 36th Street station in Sunset Park. One witness reported that the suspect said “oops,” before detonating the canister, police said.
James then allegedly fired a 9-millimeter Glock handgun at least 33 times, injuring 10 people with gunshot wounds and causing a rush out of the smoke-filled train car that led to injuries among at least 13 others, police said.
The Glock, which was lawfully purchased in 2011 by James in Ohio, had marks on it which appear to indicate there was an attempt to deface its serial number, according to a federal complaint.
“The timeline on this gun's life spans 16 years and five states,” said John DeVito, special agent in charge, New York field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
On Wednesday, police said James had an extensive arrest record, including nine prior arrests in New York from 1992 to 1998 for possession of burglary tools, a criminal sex act and theft of service. He also had three arrests in New Jersey from 1991 to 2007, including for trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct.
James will make an initial court appearance on the terrorism charges in federal court in Brooklyn.
“My office is prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that on April 12, 2022, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in the Eastern District of New York that Frank James did knowingly and without lawful authority and permission, committed an act, including the use of a dangerous weapon with the intent to cause of death and serious bodily injury,” according to a statement from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.
The federal statute under which James has been charged prohibits terrorist and other violent attacks on mass transportation systems, Peace said. James faces up to life in prison if convicted, the prosecutor said. He most likely will appear in federal court Thursday, according to a law enforcement official.
Mia Eisner-Grynberg, a federal defender who's representing James, didn't immediately return a voicemail and email seeking comment about the charges against her client.
Authorities had initially responded to reports of smoke at the 36th station, which serves the D, N and R lines. First responders encountered wounded commuters along with several undetonated smoke devices.
Meanwhile, James boarded an R train, went one stop and exited at the 25th Street station in Brooklyn. He was also seen entering the 9th Street and Seventh Avenue subway station in the neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn, later that morning, his last known location before his arrest.
James was originally identified as a person of interest in the hours after the attack. Law enforcement found a plastic container containing gasoline, a torch, multiple bank cards and a key to a U-Haul van he rented in Philadelphia. Police later found the van abandoned near the scene in Brooklyn and by Wednesday, had upgraded James to a suspect.
According to the federal complaint, law enforcement agencies executed a court-authorized warrant to search a storage unit registered to James and found, among other things, 9-millimeter ammunition and a threaded 9-millimeter pistol barrel that allows for a silencer or suppressor to be attached. They also found .223 caliber ammunition, which is used with AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, but did not find a rifle. During a search of a Philadelphia apartment rented by James, authorities found an empty magazine for a Glock handgun, a taser, a high-capacity rifle magazine and a blue smoke canister.
Officials had offered a $50,000 reward for information on James. They found a number of social media posts linked to James about Adams, the city and homelessness, findings that prompted the NYPD to increase the mayor's personal security as he remains isolated with Covid at Gracie Mansion.
“First and foremost, we wanted to take him off the street,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said. The investigation into his motive and his social media is continuing, he said.
Read More: NYC Names Person of Interest as Subway Shooter Remains at Large
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