Brooklyn shooter Frank James was arrested following a tip to Crime Stoppers that was suspected to have come from him. He was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon.
Apparently, Mr. James called in the tip saying he was at a McDonald’s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He said he saw his face on the TV and knew he was wanted by the police. The call was followed by a 911 call from someone who said they saw Frank James.
He is suspected of firing 33 shots while on a crowded N train traveling toward the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. 10 people were shot and 19 people injured, none of them was life-threatening. The motive is still unknown at the moment.
James was charged in federal court with violating a law that prohibits terrorist and other violent attacks against a mass transportation system. Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said that if convicted, he could spend life in prison.
Mr. James has a lengthy criminal history according to the New York City Police Department. Also, prior to the shootings, he uploaded videos on YouTube talking about mass shootings and violence.
He has nine prior arrests in the city dating from 1992 to 1998 for offenses including possession of burglary tools, a criminal sex act, and theft of service, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
In a video he posted on Monday, he said “I’ve been through a lot of s**t, where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my f**king face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don’t want to go to no f**king prison.”