The shooting took place this Wednesday.
Millions of New Yorkers started work and school on Wednesday morning as law enforcement searched for the gunman who shot and killed 10 people on a subway train during Brooklyn Shooting rush hour yesterday morning.
NYPD officers and ambulances filled the streets of Sunset Park following the shooting.
The hunt for Frank R. James, 62, who police have identified as a “suspect” in the mass shooting, has intensified, but Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday. Said he was a suspect.
Police found keys to a U-Haul van that authorities say James rented in Philadelphia and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol with extended magazines, an axe, fireworks, a liquid believed to be gasoline, and black trash. Maybe it detonated, but the smoke bomb didn’t.
How many people got injured?
At least four school children between 12 and 16 were among the injured passengers, who required medical attention after being shot, inhaling smoke, falling and panicking. Five of the 10 killed are in critical but stable condition; 13 others were injured, but none were reported in a life-threatening situation. Authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for pursuing a gas mask-wearing gunman who fired 33 shots into a crowded train in the worst public transport accident.
James, who has addresses in Wisconsin and Philadelphia, appears to have posted dozens of bizarre, rambling videos on social media in recent years in which he expressed a range of bigoted views on topics ranging from mental health services, death, and race to Ukraine. The police released a screenshot of James from a YouTube video posted on a channel owned by user Prophetoftruth88. James called the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams, criticizing his recently announced public safety policy against subway homeless people in a video released last month. Security measures for Adams, who is currently recovering from Covid at home, will be stepped up in light of the video, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
In a video released Monday, James said he had the desire to kill, but he didn’t want to go to jail. In an article uploaded on March 18 from a rented white van, James appeared relaxed as he talked about a range of issues, including moving out of his apartment, problems at work, the human condition, the climate crisis and overpopulation. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one neighbour told The New York Times that James limping described him as quiet and non-threatening, while another described him as grumpy, unfriendly and eccentric.
Early Wednesday morning, subway traffic resumed at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, as police completed their inspection of the crime scene. On Tuesday, graphic images showed chaotic scenes on the platform after the mass shooting, with injured passengers lying on the ground while others applied tourniquets to stop bleeding from their legs. Other footage, recorded as the train stopped at the station, shows black smoke billowing as the doors open, followed by passengers screaming and others tripping and falling onto the platform. Phone pictures show blood on the floor of the car.
What are enforcement people saying?
Law enforcement is urging people to send them footage from the crime scene to witness the manhunt after it was revealed that at least one camera at the subway station did not capture anything during the attack due to a “malfunction”. The police presence on the subway was beefed up overnight, but Tuesday’s horrifying incident follows a series of random subway attacks that won’t help the government convince people the city’s underground transportation system is safe. At least a third of New Yorkers – about 3 million people – ride the subway, but ridership is still 40% less than before the pandemic.