Brooklyn shooting suspect in police custody
Fox News' Bryan Llenas confirms reports Frank James was arrested.
Brooklyn subway shooting suspect Frank James is in custody after New York City police officers apprehended him following a Crime Stoppers tip on Wednesday afternoon, officials confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Wearing a blue shirt, dark-colored pants and dark sneakers, Frank R. James, 62, was arrested by the New York Police Department just before 1:45 p.m. local time. He was later escorted out of the NYPD's 9th Precinct station house and taken into federal custody around 4:25 p.m.
New York City Police, left, and law enforcement officials lead subway shooting suspect Frank R. James, 62, center, away from a police station, in New York, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
BROOKLYN SUBWAY SHOOTING SUSPECT FRANK JAMES IN CUSTODY AFTER MASSIVE MANHUNT
"My fellow New Yorkers, we got him," Mayor Eric Adams told reporters during a Wednesday press conference.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell praised the work of the NYPD and federal partners as she explained that "moments ago," James was stopped and arrested after the department received a Crime Stoppers tip that placed him inside a McDonald's restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village.
"He will be charged with committing yesterday’s appalling crime in Brooklyn," she said. James, who has been linked to New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, will be charged federally, officials confirmed.
"Mr. James is now facing a federal charge for his actions: A terrorist attack on mass transit," said Michael J. Driscoll, assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, of the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, said James was being charged with one count of committing a terrorist or other violent attack against a mass transportation system. A public defender appointed to represent him did not respond to Fox News Digital's request seeking comment.
"He will be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn and, if convicted, he will face a sentence of up to life imprisonment," Peace told reporters. He will make his first court appearance on Thursday, an office spokesperson said.
James is accused of injuring 29 people in a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, subway station around 8:25 a.m. Tuesday morning. James was allegedly aboard a Manhattan-bound N train during morning rush-hour when he placed a gas mask on his face, activated a smoke canister and opened fire inside the train and on the platform of the 36th Street subway station.
He fired his gun at least 33 times, wounding 10 gunshot victims, officials have said.
Authorities said James rented a U-Haul van from a Philadelphia store on Monday and made his way into Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, according to the federal criminal complaint.
READ THE FULL CRIMINAL COMPLAINT FOR FRANK R. JAMES HERE:
"New York City Police Department video surveillance cameras recorded the U-Haul Vehicle driving over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at approximately 4:11 a.m. on April 12, 2022, and entering Brooklyn, New York," states the document, released Thursday. "The U-Haul Vehicle crossed state lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York."
At approximately 6:12 a.m. on Tuesday, a surveillance camera located at West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Gravesend, Brooklyn, "recorded an individual wearing a yellow hard hat, orange working jacket with reflective tape, carrying a backpack in his right hand and dragging a rolling bag in his left hand, leaving the U-Haul Vehicle on foot," the complaint states.
He then entered a nearby subway station and rode the train an estimated eight stops before unleashing his attack, NYPD officials said Tuesday.
Authorities said James then boarded a different subway after the attack and fled from the area. According to the complaint, authorities discovered two bags and the reflective jacket among items that were left behind at the scene.
"The first bag contained, among other items, a firearm, a plastic container containing gasoline, a torch, a U-Haul key, and multiple bank cards," the document states. "The second bag contained fireworks, which are black powder-filled explosives."
A general manager at the U-Haul location did not respond to Fox News Digital’s multiple requests for information. John B. DeVito, special agent in charge of the ATF's New York Field Office, said James acquired the gun he had used "from a federal firearms licensee in Ohio in 2011."
The criminal complaint further describes how James also left behind a debit card under his name.
The document adds: "Records provided by U-Haul revealed that, on April 11, 2022, at approximately 2:03 p.m., an individual named ‘Frank James' rented from U-Haul in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a white Chevrolet Express Model G2500 Cargo Van with Arizona plates … U-Haul records reflected that the individual reserved and prepaid for the rental on or about April 6, 2022."
BROOKLYN SUBWAY SHOOTING: PERSON OF INTEREST FRANK JAMES POSTED RACIST RANTS TO YOUTUBE FOR YEARS
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said Wednesday that James' arrest history includes nine prior arrests in New York from 1992 and 1998, including for criminal sex act, four instances of possession of burglary tools and two instances of theft of service.
He was also arrested at least three times in New Jersey in 1991, 1992 and 2007, for trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct, Essig said.
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Fox News' Danielle Wallace, Michael Ruiz and Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
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