NYC subway shooting suspect makes first court appearance

NYC subway shooting suspect makes first court appearance
NYC subway shooting suspect makes first court appearance
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The man accused of opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn was ordered to be held on a permanent order of detention following his first court appearance Thursday.

Frank Robert James, 62, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, more than 24 hours into an intense manhunt that began after 10 people were shot on a crowded subway car in Brooklyn.

James was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on a mass transportation vehicle and was subsequently transferred to federal custody. James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

James didn’t enter a plea during the court hearing and only answered a few yes or no questions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann did not rule out a future bail application.

James was born in New York City and has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years, according to Peace.

“As alleged, the defendant committed a heinous and premeditated attack on ordinary New Yorkers during their morning subway commute,” Peace said in a statement Wednesday. “All New Yorkers have the right to expect that they will be safe as they travel throughout our great city and use our vital transportation systems.”

The shooting unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.

A man witnessed mumbling to himself on the subway car donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing a barrage of 33 bullets, hitting 10 people, a police official told ABC News.

The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.

Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.

A total of 29 people were injured, according to hospital officials.

“The defendant, terrifyingly, opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way this city hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said in court Thursday. “The defendant’s attack was premeditated; it was carefully planned; and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city. The defendant’s mere presence outside federal custody presents a serious risk of danger to the community and he should be detained pending trial.”

James’ defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg called the subway shooting a tragedy but pointed out that initial information can often be wrong. She also lauded James’ actions after the shooting.

“Yesterday Mr. James saw his photograph on the news,” Eisner-Grynberg said. “He called crime stoppers. He told them where he was.”

The lawyer said her client deserves a fair trial like all other defendants.

In court, she asked the judge to order James to undergo psychiatric treatment while in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Brooklyn.

According to the criminal complaint, police recovered two bags from the scene containing, among other items, a Glock 17 pistol, a key to a U-Haul rental vehicle and multiple bank cards, including a debit card with the name Frank James. They also discovered a jacket with reflective tape near the two bags that had a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia, which records provided by the facility showed was registered to James, the complaint said.

The Glock recovered from the scene was lawfully purchased by James in Ohio, according to the complaint.

Records provided by U-Haul showed James rented a white Chevrolet van from the company in Philadelphia on Monday, according to the complaint. The U-Haul vehicle crossed states lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York, the complaint said. Surveillance cameras recorded the van driving over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before dawn Tuesday and entering Brooklyn, according to the complaint.

At approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, another surveillance camera 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 van on foot near West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, according to the complaint.

Police later located the vehicle parked on Kings Highway, about two blocks from a subway stop for the N-train, where investigators believe James entered the mass transit system.

“Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” Mayor Eric Adams told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.

Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James, including, police said, “race-based grievances and conspiracy theory narratives.”

Police added, “James made several statements indicating that he suffers from a deteriorated mental and emotional state, including claims of severe post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as at least one video that includes a potential indicator of his intent to conduct an act of violence.”

The investigation was complicated by the fact that none of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of the attack, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.

James was ultimately apprehended after police received a tip that he was in a McDonald’s near 6th Street and 1st Avenue. When responding officers didn’t see James at the fast-food restaurant, they drove around the area and spotted him near St. Marks Place and First Avenue, where he was taken into custody at around 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to police.

Sources told ABC News that James may have called police on himself. Among the calls to NYPD Crime Stoppers was reportedly someone who said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”

James allegedly gave his name and a description of what he was wearing, according to sources. He said his phone battery was dying and he would be either in the McDonald’s charging his phone or out front, according to sources. A New York City Police Department official told ABC News investigators are reviewing the 911 call.

When officers didn’t find the suspect in the McDonald’s, a block away they encountered pedestrians who told officers they found James, sources said. James was found standing at a kiosk charging his phone, according to sources.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim, Josh Margolin, Christopher Looft and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Boston COVID test positivity rate passes ‘threshold of concern’

Boston COVID test positivity rate passes ‘threshold of concern’
Boston COVID test positivity rate passes ‘threshold of concern’
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

(BOSTON) — Boston public health officials are urging residents to take extra precautions as COVID-19 cases tick up ahead of the upcoming holiday weekend.

In a blog post Wednesday, the Boston Public Health Commission said the city’s test positivity rate currently sits at 6.2%, which is above the agency’s “threshold of concern” of 5%.

It’s also nearly three times higher than the 2.2% test positivity rate recorded one month ago.

Additionally, data shows young adults between ages 20 and 30 are driving the increase and have the highest case rate in Boston.

Ahead of several holidays — including Passover, Easter and Ramadan — and the 126th running of the Boston Marathon Monday, the BPHC recommended wearing a well-fitting mask, getting tested before attending indoors gatherings, and getting vaccinated or boosted.

“Celebrating with family and friends is an important and treasured time and, as cases increase, we must remain vigilant so we can be together safely,” Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Commissioner of Public Health and Executive Director of the BPHC, said in a statement. “We have the tools … to stay safe and lower the risk of COVID-19 infection and severe illness.”

Experts said the increase in Boston is mostly due to the spread of BA.2, a highly infectious subvariant of the original BA.1 omicron variant.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.2 makes up more than 90% of cases that have undergone genome sequencing in New England.

“It’s nothing compared to what we saw in terms of the huge and dramatic spike when BA.1 was in the process of replacing the delta variant,” Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told ABC News. “It’s an uptick, it’s not what we want, but it’s much less significant than BA.1.”

Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said health officials had been preparing for an increase in the city after seeing cases rise in Western Europe due to BA.2 a few weeks ago.

“Whatever happens in Western Europe [with COVID-19] has been a harbinger of what’s going to come in the United States,” he told ABC News. “You can almost set your calendar by it.”

However, there may be some positive signs that this increase in cases will not lead to another wave.

At Tufts Medical Center, Doron said there are more people seeking COVID-19 treatment at outpatient facilities compared to a few weeks ago, but there has not been an increase in hospitalizations.

She added that there has also been a small increase of employees testing positive every day, but it’s not causing staffing shortages.

“It’s not straining our ability to properly staff, it’s not straining our ability to get people in for monoclonal antibodies if they need it,” Doron said.

Experts suggested one reason why COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations may not be surging as they did during the winter is because so many people were infected during the omicron wave that they may have boosted their immunity.

“So many people came down with COVID during the last wave … that they either knew someone who had it, or they had it themselves” Sax said.

Both doctors recommended similar precautions to the BPHC over the holiday weekend including getting tested before gathering with family and friends and taking measures, such as masking indoors, especially if someone is immunocompromised.

Sax also recommended anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing symptoms contact their doctor to see if they’re eligible for Paxlovid, Pfizer’s antiviral pill.

“Unlike our previous waves, we are lucky enough to have an antiviral treatment,” Sax said. “The key is to take it quickly so, as soon as they get diagnosed, they should see if they are eligible because it could really help prevent the most dreaded complications of COVID-19.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

NYC subway shooting suspect set to appear in Brooklyn federal court

NYC subway shooting suspect makes first court appearance
NYC subway shooting suspect makes first court appearance
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Frank Robert James, 62, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, more than 24 hours into an intense manhunt that began after 10 people were shot on a crowded subway car in Brooklyn, New York.

He was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on a mass transportation vehicle and was subsequently transferred to federal custody in Brooklyn. Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office brought the charges, said James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

James, who was born in New York City but has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years, will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, according to Peace. The exact timing was unknown.

The shooting unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.

A man mumbling to himself on the subway car donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing a barrage of 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Ten people were shot, with the youngest being a 12-year-old, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.

Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.

A total of 29 people were injured, according to hospital officials. As of Wednesday morning, four of the wounded remained hospitalized, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News.

Evidence recovered from the scene pointed investigators to James. According to the criminal complaint, police recovered two bags containing, among other items, a Glock 17 pistol, a key to a U-Haul rental vehicle and multiple bank cards. They also discovered a jacket with reflective tape near the two bags. Inside the jacket was a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia, which records provided by the facility showed was registered to James, the complaint said.

Records provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revealed that the Gock handgun recovered from the scene of the attack was lawfully purchased by James in Ohio, according to the complaint. One of the bank cards was a debit card bearing the name “Frank James,” the complaint said. Records provided by U-Haul showed that James rented a white Chevrolet van from the company in Philadelphia on Monday, according to the complaint.

The U-Haul vehicle crossed states lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York, the complaint said. Surveillance cameras recorded the van driving over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before dawn on Tuesday and entering Brooklyn, according to the complaint.

At approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, another surveillance camera 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 van on foot near West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood.

Police later located the vehicle parked on Kings Highway, about two blocks from a subway stop for the N-train, where investigators believe James entered the mass transit system.

Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James. They’re determining if they’re relevant to the shooting, they said.

The investigation has been complicated by the fact that none of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of the attack, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at the turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a glitch computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.

James managed to evade law enforcement for more than a day. The New York City Police Department initially deemed James a person of interest in the investigation on Tuesday night before naming him a suspect on Wednesday morning. Wanted for the attempted murder of 10 people, he became the subject of an expansive search by local and federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service.

James was ultimately apprehended after police received a tip that he was in a McDonald’s near Sixth Street and First Avenue. When responding officers didn’t see James at the fast-food restaurant, they drove around the area and spotted him near St. Marks Place and First Avenue, where he was taken into custody without incident at around 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to police.

Sources told ABC News that James may have called police on himself.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

ISIS ‘Beatle’ accused of murdering Americans awaits jury verdict

ISIS ‘Beatle’ accused of murdering Americans awaits jury verdict
ISIS ‘Beatle’ accused of murdering Americans awaits jury verdict
Mint Images/Getty Images

(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — A Virginia federal jury began deliberations on Wednesday in the case of a confessed ISIS fighter accused of being one of the infamous “Beatles,” the British terrorists who tortured and murdered more than six victims among a group of 26 westerners held hostage in Syria.

El Shafee Elsheikh doesn’t deny fighting for ISIS but rested his defense in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on his claim that this was a case of mistaken identity about holding the westerners captive. He faces a life sentence if convicted of holding hostages and causing the deaths of journalists and humanitarian aid workers, including four Americans and two Britons.

In closing arguments Wednesday, federal prosecutors said Elsheikh was one of the men who brutalized American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. The men were shown in ISIS videos in 2014-15 being beheaded by a black-clad and masked ISIS executioner nicknamed “Jihadi John” because hostages had dubbed the men the “Beatles” to discuss them while in captivity.

The videos shocked the world as the executioner — later named as Mohammed Emwazi — demanded the U.S. cease military strikes against ISIS.

Mueller, 26, of Prescott, Arizona, was reportedly killed by an airstrike by ISIS in February 2015. It was later revealed that she had been taken by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and repeatedly abused and raped.

“Elsheikh, without a shadow of a doubt, is an ISIS Beatle,” prosecutor Raj Parekh told the jury.

But defense lawyer Nina Ginsberg countered that the U.S. never presented any hard evidence that the defendant was anything other than a foot soldier in ISIS battling the Syrian Army.

Despite evidence from a parade of former hostages and FBI agents who testified during the trial about what she described as “loathsome, brutal acts,” Ginsberg said the government failed to prove Elsheikh was a captor, and that he was “never identified at this trial by any of the former hostages.”

The U.S. instead relied primarily on Elsheikh’s own statements after his 2018 capture by Syrian Democratic Forces with fellow admitted ISIS Beatle Alexanda Kotey, who has pleaded guilty. They told several journalists, primarily British filmmaker Sean Langan, on video that they held the westerners captive, got family members’ email addresses from hostages such as Mueller, and beat others such as Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye.

Rye testified on Tuesday, revealing agonizing details of how the British ISIS members had stuck him in the ribs 25 times on his 25th birthday, hanged him by his hands and jammed the barrel of an MP5 submachine gun in his mouth.

He described the loyalty of Foley, who once had an opportunity to escape captivity but refused to abandon his comrade, the British journalist John Cantlie, whose whereabouts and survival remain unknown. Notably, Cantlie’s photo was shown to jurors alongside six other hostages known to have been killed.

The captors forced them to sing a version of “Hotel California,” emphasizing the line, “You can never leave” — but that was hardly the worst of their suffering.

Sotloff tried to leave letters for Mueller in a communal toilet, but they were caught and he, Cantlie and Foley were punished severely, he recalled. When he learned after 13 months he had been ransomed and set for release, Rye said Cantlie came to him.

“He wanted me to bring out a message. ‘If you cannot get us released, drop a bomb on this place – kill us,’” Rye said, as family members of hostages in the courtroom held each other.

By the time he and another hostage were told they were being released as the last two Europeans, Rye said the Americans and British hostages knew they were going to be executed. The U.S. began bombing ISIS in August 2014.

The Americans retreated silently to one corner of the small room, the British men in another corner. As he left the room, “I took one last look at my friends, and thought it was the last time I would see them alive,” Rye told the jury.

Prosecutors said all of the hostages who were brutalized and those ultimately murdered showed superhuman courage. They described a year or more of broken ribs, severe blows to the thighs called “dead legs,” stress positions, water deprivation, mock executions — and finally beheadings which, at least, ended their suffering.

“All these people wanted was to do the right thing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick said.

Sotloff’s father, Art, told ABC News that justice has been served.

“I feel like all of them are looking down on us, pattin’ us on the back for doing the right thing,” he said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Store owner arrested in shooting of 9-year-old girl at California mall

Store owner arrested in shooting of 9-year-old girl at California mall
Store owner arrested in shooting of 9-year-old girl at California mall
KABC-TV

(LOS ANGELES) — A store owner has been arrested in the shooting of a 9-year-old girl police said was hit by an errant bullet at a Southern California mall when the merchant allegedly opened fire on a pair of shoplifters he was chasing.

Marqel Cockrell, 20, was being held on $1 million bail after he was arrested in Nevada and booked on suspicion of attempted murder, the Victorville Police Department announced Wednesday.

The shooting unfolded around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville, police said.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department sent deputies to the mall after receiving multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire at the shopping center, authorities said. Multiple law enforcement agencies also responded to the scene as the mall was placed on lockdown and officers began to evacuate people and searched for the shooter, who apparently fled by the time officers arrived.

Deputies found the wounded girl and immediately began rendering medical aid, Victorville police said. She was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where she was in stable condition.

The girl’s family members told ABC station KABC in Los Angeles that she suffered a gunshot wound to the arm.

Investigators believe the shooting occurred near a Barnes & Nobles outlet at the mall. Overnight, investigators worked to identify Cockrell as the suspect in the shooting.

Cockrell, who is the co-owner of a sneaker store at the mall called Sole Addicts, attempted to chase down two shoplifters out of his store according to police. In an attempt to stop the shoplifters, Cockrell fired multiple shots, missing the shoplifters and striking the young victim.

After fleeing the scene, Cockrell was arrested by the Nevada Highway Patrol in Clark County, Nevada, about 9 pm. Tuesday. He was booked at the Clark County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and is awaiting extradition back to California.

This is the second shooting to occur at the Mall of Victor Valley within the last six months. In November 2021, a man was killed and two other people, including a juvenile, were wounded in a shooting outside the mall.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

How the New York City subway shooting suspect was captured

How the New York City subway shooting suspect was captured
How the New York City subway shooting suspect was captured
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Brooklyn subway shooter suspect Frank James, was arrested within 30 hours after the incident through a combination of on-the-ground detective work, technology and possibly a tip from the fugitive himself, investigators said.

“We were able to shrink his world, quickly. There was nowhere left for him to run,” New York Police Department Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Officers got their first lead soon after the incident at the crime scene, the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where several eyewitnesses filmed and photographed James.

Police said the suspect also left behind key pieces of evidence that helped them track his movements before and after the incident — a 9 mm Glock allegedly used in the shooting, his coat, a bag filled with fireworks and James’ credit card.

James used the credit card to rent U-Haul van that was discovered parked five miles southeast of the station, police said. Officers recovered the vehicle later in the evening.

James legally purchased the gun in Ohio in 2011, according to the NYPD. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is currently looking over data related to the gun, according to the agency.

Cameras were not working inside the 36th Street subway station, but he was filmed entering the subway station near where the van was found, according to investigators. He was also spotted at the 7th Avenue station in Park Slope, roughly three miles north of the crime scene, less than 30 minutes after the shooting, police said.

James fled the scene in a R train from the 36th Street station, police said.

While investigators continued to probe through clues, including James’ social media posts where he ranted against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, police released his photo to the public Tuesday night and named James as a “person of interest.”

“That was a critical effect on raising the kind of public awareness,” John Miller, the NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said at Tuesday’s news conference.

A cellphone alert with James’ description went out to New York City residents at 10:21 a.m. Wednesday, just hours after the police officially identified him as a suspect.

The NYPD said they received a Crime Stoppers tip a few hours later from some claiming James was inside a McDonald’s in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The tipster may have been James himself, according to sources.

“I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonald’s,” one of the tipsters reportedly said, according to sources.

An NYPD official said police are reviewing the 911 call.

When officers responded to the McDonald’s, James was nowhere to be seen, so officers drove around the neighborhood, according to the NYPD.

Around 1:45 p.m. officers found James in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan and arrested him without incident, according to police.

The FBI, ATF and other federal law enforcement agencies said they are still going through evidence and clues related to the shooting.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Mark Crudele contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses

NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses
NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses
Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Frank James, the man wanted for allegedly opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people, was taken into custody in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, officials said, ending an over 24-hour-long search.

“We got him,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced at a Wednesday news conference.

The NYPD received a tip saying the suspect was in the East Village, in a McDonald’s at 6th Street and 1st Avenue, police said. Responding officers didn’t see him in the McDonald’s, but they drove around the area and spotted James near St. Marks Place and 1st Avenue, where he was taken into custody without incident around 1:45 p.m. ET, police said.

James, 62, may have called police on himself, according to sources. Among the calls to Crime Stoppers was reportedly someone who said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”

An NYPD official said police are reviewing the 911 call.

Once taken into custody, James asked for a lawyer and didn’t speak to officers, according to law enforcement sources.

James has been charged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn with terror-related offenses, officials said, and has been transferred to federal custody.

James, wanted for the attempted murder of 10 people, was the subject of an intense search by the U.S. Marshals Service and other federal and local agencies.

In the chaos after the Tuesday morning shooting at the 36th Street subway station, James eluded law enforcement by boarding an R train that pulled into the station and traveling one stop before exiting at the 25th Street station, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig. After that, James was seen again at a Park Slope subway stop at 9:15 a.m. before fading from view, Essig said.

The “active shooter” incident unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway just before 8:30 a.m. as the train approached the 36th Street station.

A man mumbling to himself on the train donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Three teenagers were among the 10 people shot.

The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.

Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.

Twenty-nine people suffered various injuries, hospital officials said. As of Wednesday morning, just four of the wounded remained hospitalized, according to Adams.

“Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” Adams told ABC News in an interview Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”

“We still do not know the suspect’s motivation,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Tuesday evening. “Clearly this individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”

The Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun James allegedly used was purchased legally in 2011 in Ohio, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The gun, and the purchase of a gas mask on eBay, are among the pieces of evidence that elevated James from person of interest to suspect, the sources said.

Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News that they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James and are studying them closely to see if they are relevant to the subway attack.

Sewell said she increased security for the mayor after investigators found what she called “concerning posts,” though she declined to call them “threats.”

“There are some postings possibly connected to our person of interest where he mentions homelessness, he mentions New York and he does mention Mayor Adams,” Sewell told reporters Tuesday. “And as a result of that, in an abundance of caution, we’re going to tighten the mayor’s security detail.”

Authorities are also tracking James’ whereabouts leading up to the shooting.

On Monday night, according to federal prosecutors, James accessed a storage unit with gun parts and ammunition in Philadelphia, near where he was living. According to prosecutors, police found “an empty magazine for a Glock handgun, a taser, a high-capacity rifle magazine and a blue smoke canister” in the apartment.

Prosecutors allege James rented a U-Haul van in Philadelphia on Monday. On Tuesday morning, James drove from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then entered New York, reaching Brooklyn at about 4:11 a.m., prosecutors said.

Security cameras showed James at 6:12 a.m. Tuesday, wearing a hard hat and orange vest, two blocks away from the 36th Street station, prosecutors said. Police showed witnesses that surveillance video to identify him, according to prosecutors.

Police said the U-Haul was found Tuesday afternoon, parked near a subway station on Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, about 5 miles from the 36th Street station.

The key to the van and a credit card, which law enforcement sources told ABC News was used to rent a U-Haul, were among the gunman’s possessions recovered from the shooting scene. Other items discovered at the scene of the shooting include the gun used in the attack, three extended magazines, a hatchet, gasoline, four smoke grenades and a bag of consumer-grade fireworks.

Phantom Fireworks, a company in Wisconsin, confirmed that James bought fireworks products there last year that were believed to have been left behind in the subway station.

None of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of Tuesday’s shooting, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at the turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a glitch computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.

However, the cameras at the Kings Highway subway station in Gravesend were transmitting live feeds in real-time. That’s where investigators believe James entered the subway Tuesday morning, just blocks from where the U-Haul van was parked and eight subway stops away from the 36th Street station.

Police were able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander’s cellphone video, a law enforcement official told ABC News.

“The fact that these cameras are not working is a large concern,” Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso told ABC News Live on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of work to do in the city now to check every camera, make sure they’re all working, and also a deeper dive into what happened and what we can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen.”

Subway service at the 36th Street station resumed Wednesday morning.

The bloodshed came amid a surge in crime within New York City’s transit system. The mayor said he has already doubled the number of police officers patrolling the city’s subway stations and is also considering installing special metal detectors in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.

But Reynoso said, “More cops is not necessarily going to solve for this problem.”

“I think there are root causes to this violence that exists, mostly mental health at this point, is what we’re seeing in New York City. And that’s where we should be spending resources and energy,” Reynoso said. “More cops to respond to a crime won’t necessarily stop the crime. In this case, this individual was inside a train car — unless you believe that you can put a police officer in every single train car in New York City, which is physically impossible … that’s not the way we’re going to solve that issue.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Wednesday, “The epidemic of gun violence that continues to terrorize communities across this country must end. My pledge to New Yorkers is this: I will fight every day to restore public safety, get guns off our streets, and prevent these horrific acts of violence.”

Anyone with information, videos or photos related to the shooting is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, sources say

NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses
NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses
Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Frank James, the man wanted for allegedly opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people, is in custody, sources told ABC News, ending an over 24-hour-long manhunt.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that police had probable cause to arrest James, 62, for the attempted murder of 10 people — a determination made overnight after more than 18 hours of investigation that included video, cellphone data and interviews with witnesses. The U.S. Marshals Service joined the search for James — who was considered a dangerous and wanted fugitive — along with other federal and local agencies.

The “active shooter” incident unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, according to police.

A man mumbling to himself on the train donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing at least 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Three teenagers were among the 10 people shot. The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.

Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform as others attempted to administer aid.

Twenty-nine people suffered various injuries, hospital officials said. As of Wednesday morning, just four of the wounded remained hospitalized, according to the mayor.

“At this time, based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.

“We still do not know the suspect’s motivation,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Tuesday evening. “Clearly this individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”

The Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun James allegedly used was purchased legally in 2011 in Ohio, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The gun, and the purchase of a gas mask on eBay, are among the pieces of evidence that elevated James from person of interest to suspect, the sources said.

Authorities have at least one of James’ credit cards and are able to track his purchase history.

Phantom Fireworks, a company in Wisconsin, confirmed that James bought fireworks products there last year that were believed to have been left behind in the subway station.

Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News that they have uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James and are studying them closely to see if they are relevant to the subway attack.

Sewell said she increased security for the mayor after investigators found what she called “concerning posts,” but declined to call them “threats.”

“There are some postings possibly connected to our person of interest where he mentions homelessness, he mentions New York and he does mention Mayor Adams,” Sewell told reporters Tuesday. “And as a result of that, in an abundance of caution, we’re going to tighten the mayor’s security detail.”

Police said James had rented a U-Haul van possibly connected to the violence. The key to the van and a credit card, which law enforcement sources told ABC News was used to rent a U-Haul, were among the gunman’s possessions recovered from the scene of the shooting. James had rented the same van in Philadelphia, according to police.

Police said the U-Haul van was found Tuesday afternoon, unoccupied and parked near a subway station on King’s Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, about 5 miles southeast of the 36th Street station. Nothing of investigative interest was discovered in the vehicle, apart from a pillow and other indications that James had been living inside, a law enforcement source told ABC News.

Other items discovered at the scene of the shooting include the gun used in the attack, three extended magazines, a hatchet, gasoline, four smoke grenades and a bag of consumer-grade fireworks.

None of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of Tuesday’s shooting, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at the turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a glitch computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.

However, the cameras at the Kings Highway subway station in Gravesend were transmitting live feeds in real-time. That’s where investigators believe James entered the subway Tuesday morning, just blocks from where the U-Haul van was parked and eight subway stops away from the 36th Street station.

Police were able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander’s cellphone video, a law enforcement official told ABC News. Investigators are looking through video from other witnesses and surrounding businesses, hunting for any clues.

“The fact that these cameras are not working is a large concern,” Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso told ABC News Live on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of work to do in the city now to check every camera, make sure they’re all working, and also a deeper dive into what happened and what we can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen.”

Subway service at the 36th Street station resumed Wednesday morning.

The bloodshed came amid a surge in crime within New York City’s transit system. The mayor said he has already doubled the number of police officers patrolling the city’s subway stations and is also considering installing special metal detectors in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.

But Reynoso said, “More cops is not necessarily going to solve for this problem.”

“I think there are root causes to this violence that exists, mostly mental health at this point, is what we’re seeing in New York City. And that’s where we should be spending resources and energy,” Reynoso said. “More cops to respond to a crime won’t necessarily stop the crime. In this case, this individual was inside a train car — unless you believe that you can put a police officer in every single train car in New York City, which is physically impossible … that’s not the way we’re going to solve that issue.”

Anyone with information, videos or photos related to the shooting is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

NYC subway shooting updates: Manhunt on for suspect

NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses
NYC subway shooting updates: Suspect in custody, charged with terror-related offenses
Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — New York City police are still hunting for a gunman who opened fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people.

The alleged shooter, identified by the New York City Police Department as 62-year-old Frank Robert James, was initially deemed a person of interest in the investigation before being named a suspect Wednesday morning.

“At this time, based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that police now have probable cause to arrest James for the attempted murder of 10 people — a determination made overnight after more than 18 hours of investigation that included video, cellphone data and interviews with witnesses. The U.S. Marshals Service has joined the search for James — who is now considered a wanted fugitive — along with other federal and local agencies.

The “active shooter” incident unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, according to police.

A man mumbling to himself on the train donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing at least 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Three teenagers were among the 10 people shot. The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.

Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform as others attempted to administer aid.

Twenty-nine people suffered various injuries, hospital officials said. As of Wednesday morning, just four of the wounded remained hospitalized, according to the mayor.

A wanted poster released by police Wednesday morning described James as “armed and dangerous.”

“At this time, we still do not know the suspect’s motivation,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Tuesday evening. “Clearly this individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”

A senior federal law enforcement source told ABC News that authorities are concerned the shooting showed a level of planning and commitment to kill scores of commuters during rush hour.

Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News that they have uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James and are studying them closely to see if they are relevant to the subway attack.

Sewell said she increased security for the mayor after investigators found what she called “concerning posts,” but declined to call them “threats.”

“There are some postings possibly connected to our person of interest where he mentions homelessness, he mentions New York and he does mention Mayor Adams,” Sewell told reporters Tuesday. “And as a result of that, in an abundance of caution, we’re going to tighten the mayor’s security detail.”

Police said James had rented a U-Haul van possibly connected to the violence. The key to the van and a credit card, which law enforcement sources told ABC News was used to rent a U-Haul, were among the gunman’s possessions recovered from the scene of the shooting. James had rented the same van in Philadelphia, according to police.

Police said the U-Haul van was found Tuesday afternoon, unoccupied and parked near a subway station on King’s Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, about 5 miles southeast of the 36th Street station. Nothing of investigative interest was discovered in the vehicle, apart from a pillow and other indications that James had been living inside, a law enforcement source told ABC News.

Other items discovered at the scene of the shooting include the Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun used in the attack, three extended magazines, a hatchet, gasoline, four smoke grenades and a bag of consumer-grade fireworks. The gun wasn’t stolen, according to police.

None of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of Tuesday’s shooting, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at the turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a glitch computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.

However, the cameras at the Kings Highway subway station in Gravesend were transmitting live feeds in real-time. That’s where investigators believe James entered the subway Tuesday morning, just blocks from where the U-Haul van was parked and eight subway stops away from the 36th Street station.

Police were able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander’s cellphone video, a law enforcement official told ABC News. Investigators are looking through video from other witnesses and surrounding businesses, hunting for any clues.

“The fact that these cameras are not working is a large concern,” Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso told ABC News Live on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of work to do in the city now to check every camera, make sure they’re all working, and also a deeper dive into what happened and what we can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen.”

Subway service at the 36th Street station resumed Wednesday morning.

The bloodshed came amid a surge in crime within New York City’s transit system. The mayor said he has already doubled the number of police officers patrolling the city’s subway stations and is also considering installing special metal detectors in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.

But Reynoso said, “More cops is not necessarily going to solve for this problem.”

“I think there are root causes to this violence that exists, mostly mental health at this point, is what we’re seeing in New York City. And that’s where we should be spending resources and energy,” Reynoso said. “More cops to respond to a crime won’t necessarily stop the crime. In this case, this individual was inside a train car — unless you believe that you can put a police officer in every single train car in New York City, which is physically impossible … that’s not the way we’re going to solve that issue.”

Anyone with information, videos or photos related to the shooting is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

CDC extends mask mandate for planes, trains until May 3

CDC extends mask mandate for planes, trains until May 3
CDC extends mask mandate for planes, trains until May 3
Xinhua/Ting Shen via Getty Images

(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to extend the federal mask mandate for planes and trains until May 3, the agency announced on Wednesday.

The current mandate was set to expire this coming Monday, April 18. Citing the rapid spread of an Omicron subvariant, BA.2, which now makes up more than 85% of COVID cases in the US, the CDC said it needed more time to monitor a recent uptick.

“In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC Order will remain in place at this time,” the agency stated.

Many of the nation’s airlines have pushed hard to have the government lift the mandate.

Last month, CEOs of all major U.S. airlines wrote to the administration to stop requiring masks on planes.

“It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do,” the business executives wrote.

The group said the burden of enforcing the mask mandate has fallen on their employees, saying, “This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being.”

There’s political pressure too. Several Democratic senators last March joined Republicans in a 57-40 Senate vote to overturn the requirement, although that bill hasn’t been taken up in the House.

The CDC decision to keep the status quo for just a little longer comes as the nation has entered an unprecedented phase in the pandemic. Much of the country is still exhibiting substantial spread of the virus, but hospitalizations and deaths have dropped since January.

The CDC though has argued that travel on airplanes, trains and buses presents a unique risk, including the possible rapid introduction of a dangerous new variant from overseas.

“There’s a lot of mixing, a lot of international travel that it’s hard to disentangle,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told ABC’s “Start Here” last March. The mandate also applies to all public transportation hubs, including airports.

Also, she noted that many people don’t have a choice but to use shared transportation to get to work. An estimated 3% of Americans are estimated to be immunocompromised and potentially at serious risk of the virus, even if vaccinated.

The number of unruly passengers on planes spiked during the pandemic. This year alone, the Federal Aviation Administration has received 1,150 reports of unruly passengers — 744 of which were related to face masks.

Just before the extension was announced, the head of the group that lobbies on behalf of all major U.S. airlines, doubled down on the call for getting rid of mask and pre-departure testing requirements.

“Neither restriction is currently supported by data and science in today’s public health environment,” Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, said in a letter to administration officials.

ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Eric Strauss contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.