Frank James, arrested as a suspect in the New York subway shooting that left 10 people wounded, will make his first court appearance on Thursday, according to authorities.
The 62-year-old man was charged in federal court with violating a law that prohibits terrorist attacks and other violent attacks on the public transportation system, according to Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison, Peace said.
“As alleged, the defendant committed a heinous and premeditated attack on ordinary New Yorkers during their morning commute on the subway,” Peace said in a statement.
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April 14, 202200:20
The timing of James' appearance in federal court will be confirmed Thursday morning, according to prosecutors' spokesman John Marzulli.
James' arrest was made possible after he himself called in to turn himself in: “This is Frank.
You guys are looking for me… My phone is about to run out of battery,” he said.
Police are looking for motives for the attack
Frank James posted dozens of videos on the social network YouTube in which he ranted about racism, violence and his mental health.
When police arrested James on Wednesday, they were still searching for a motive for the attack from a flood of details about his life: arrests for a series of mostly minor crimes, an ammunition warehouse.
And hours of incoherent, bigoted, profanity-filled videos that point to
deep, smoldering anger.
New York police lead subway shooting suspect Frank R. James, center, out of a police station, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. Seth Wenig/AP
"This nation was born in violence,
is kept alive by violence or the threat of it, and is going to die a violent death," James says in a video calling himself "The Prophet of Doom." .
James seems to have opinions on just about everything on his YouTube channel: racism in America, the new mayor of New York City (Eric Adams), the state of mental health services, 9/11, the Russian invasion. from Ukraine and black women.
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A federal criminal complaint cited one in which James ranted about the glut of homeless people on the subway and blamed the city's mayor.
The man also lashed out at the treatment of black people in an April 6 video cited in the complaint. "And the message to me is: I should have picked up a gun and started shooting," he says.
In a video posted a day before the attack,
James criticizes crime against Black people
, saying things would only change if certain people were "stomped on, kicked and tortured" outside of their "comfort zone."
Surveillance cameras spotted James entering the turnstiles of the subway system Tuesday morning, dressed as a maintenance or construction worker in a yellow hard hat and orange work jacket with reflective tape.
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Police say his fellow passengers only heard him say "oops" when he set off a smoke grenade in a crowded subway car entering the station.
He then activated a second grenade and began firing, according to police.
Amid the smoke and chaos that ensued, police say James slipped onto the train.
The gun, extended magazines, an axe, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black trash can, a rolling cart, gasoline and a van key were left at the scene, police said.
A history of violence
That key led investigators to James, and clues to a
life of setbacks and rage
as he switched between factory and maintenance jobs multiple times, was laid off at least twice, moved between Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Investigators said James had
12 prior arrests
in New York and New Jersey from 1990 to 2007, including possession of burglary tools, sexual assault, burglary, larceny and disorderly conduct.
[“Enough causing pain and destruction”: New York governor condemns subway shooting]
James
had no felony convictions
and was not prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm.
Police said the gun used in the attack was purchased legally from an Ohio pawn shop in 2011. A search of James' storage unit and apartment in Philadelphia found at least two types of ammunition, including the one it is used with an AR-15 assault rifle, stun gun, and blue smoke canister.
According to police, James was born and raised in New York City.
In his videos, he said he finished an auto shop course in 1983 and then worked as a gear machinist at Curtiss-Wright, an aerospace manufacturer in New Jersey, until 1991, when he was hit with a double whammy of bad news: He was fired from his job and, soon after, his father with whom he had lived in New Jersey died.
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Records show that James filed a lawsuit against the aerospace company in federal court shortly after losing his job alleging racial discrimination, but it was dismissed a year later by a judge.
James describes being in and out of various mental health facilities,
including two in New York's Bronx in the 1970s.
"Mr. Mayor, let me tell you that I am a victim of your mental health program in New York City," James says in a video earlier this year, adding that he is "full of hate, full of anger and bitterness."
James says he was later a patient at Bridgeway House, a mental health facility in New Jersey, although that has not been confirmed.