Suspect Frank James is led by police after being arrested
(Picture: Getty Images)A man charged with terrorism over the shooting of 10 people on the New York subway was revealed to have posted dozens of videos ranting about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness.
One was a silent shot of a packed New York City subway carriage in which he raises his finger to point out passengers, one by one.
Police arrested Frank R James, 62, on Wednesday over the Brooklyn shooting - and were still searching for a motive.
They were sifting through a flood of details about his life, including an erratic work history, arrests for a string of mostly low-level crimes and hours of rambling profanity-laced videos on his YouTube channel.
“This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof, and it’s going to die a violent death,” says James in a video where he calls himself Prophet of Doom.
After a 30-hour manhunt, James was arrested without incident after a tipster, thought by police to be James himself, said he could be found near a McDonald’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Mayor Eric Adams triumphantly proclaimed “We got him!”
Police said their top priority was getting the suspect off the streets.
Surveillance cameras had spotted James entering the subway system turnstiles on Tuesday, dressed as a maintenance or construction worker in a yellow hard hat and orange working jacket with reflective tape.
Police say fellow riders heard him say only “oops” as he set off one smoke grenade in a crowded carriage as it rolled into a station.
He then set off a second smoke grenade and started firing, police said.
In the smoke and chaos that ensued, police say James made his getaway by slipping into a train that pulled in across the platform and exited after the first stop.
Left behind at the scene was the gun, extended magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black rubbish bin, petrol and the key to a van, police said.
That key led investigators to James, and clues to a life of setbacks and anger as he bounced among factory and maintenance jobs and was sacked at least twice.
Investigators said James had 12 prior arrests from 1990 to 2007, including for possession of burglary tools, criminal sex act, trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct.
James was not prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm.
Police said the gun used in the attack was legally purchased at a pawn shop in 2011.
A search of James’ storage unit and apartment turned up at least two types of ammunition, including the kind used with an AR-15 assault-style rifle and a taser.
