New York: the suspect of the shootings in the subway arrested and charged with “terrorist act”

the essential Frank James, a 62-year-old African-American, was suspected of being the author of the shootings in the New York subway. He was arrested on Wednesday evening, according to several American media. The man suspected of having fired in the New York subway at rush hour on Tuesday morning, injuring 23, including 10 by bullets, was arrested on Wednesday, reported several American media citing police sources. He will be prosecuted under a law that prohibits “terrorist attacks and other violence against (…) public transport”, announced a federal prosecutor. “He will appear in federal court in Brooklyn and, if convicted, will face a life sentence,” prosecutor Breon Peace said at a press conference. The suspect, who had wreaked havoc on the subway the day before, was found in Manhattan, according to NBC television. “We will continue to tighten the trap around him and stop him”, promised in the morning the Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, expected at the turn on the theme of the fight against crime, he who had made it a campaign theme to be elected last year. Police had been looking for more than 24 hours for Frank James, a 62-year-old African American, accused of multiple shootings on an N line train at 36th street station in southern Brooklyn. On Wednesday, New Yorkers received an “urgent” message on their phones asking them to deliver any useful information to investigators. A $50,000 reward had been put on the table. On YouTube The man had a YouTube page, dubbed “prophetoftruth88” (prophet of truth) removed Wednesday morning for “violation of the community rules” of the site. He posted multiple videos there where we see him launching long tirades, sometimes rambling and vehement, in which he evokes racial issues, insecurity in New York, especially on the subway, and attacks homosexual people, or new mayor Eric Adams. As the hunt for the shooter, described as “dangerous” the day before, continued, millions of New Yorkers took to the subway, one of the largest networks in the world, to go to work, some posting selfies on the social networks to show that life was getting back to normal. “You don’t get up in the morning thinking that you’re not going to make it home or that you’re going to hurt yourself going there. It’s New York, the city never stops,” explained to the AFP Sony Washington, a 35-year-old machinist, while worried that the suspect is still in the wild. “I always pay attention to my surroundings since September 11 (2001). But there have been more incidents on the docks recently, so I pay more attention,” added Laura Swalm, 49, who lives the neighboring state of New Jersey. 33 bullets fired Tuesday morning, around 08:30 (12:30 GMT), at a time when the metro trains are crowded, the individual, who was wearing a gas mask, lit two devices which smoked the car, then shot at passengers as the train entered the station. “We were really lucky it wasn’t much more serious,” said NYPD Chief Keechant Sewell, summarizing the authorities’ relief. The suspect fired 33 rounds. “All you see is black smoke, and I turned to the right, and I saw this guy with a mask,” testified on CNN one of the victims, Hourari Benkada, since his hospital bed. “The shooting lasted about a minute (…). I’ve never heard so many shots coming out of a handgun… (…) He probably had extended magazines or some other weapon on fire,” added the man, hit in the knee. At the scene, investigators found a handgun and three magazines. The attack came as New York has faced a spike in crime since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides rising from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, although the annual toll remains well in below the more than 2,000 a year recorded in the early 1990s. Shootings have also remained on the rise since the start of the year, rising from 260 to 296 in the first quarter of 2022, according to police figures, some of which marked spirits, like the death on Friday of a 17-year-old girl, shot dead outside a high school in the Bronx.