The tip that led to the arrest of the Brooklyn subway shooting suspect Frank James was called in by Mr James himself, according to reports.
Law enforcement officials said that Mr James, 62, called Crime Stoppers and gave his location before his arrest in New York’s East Village neighbourhood on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Police said at an earlier press conference that Mr James was tipped to be at a McDonald’s restaurant on 6th Street and 1st Avenue. He was found around the corner and arrested without incident.
Authorities had offered a $50,000 reward for any information to the arrest of Mr James. Two law enforcement officials told CNN that Mr James was the person who delivered the information that led to his arrest.
The location of his arrest was a few blocks from the N-line, which connects to Manhattan from the 36th Street station in Brooklyn, where the attack took place. The NYPD defended allowing trains to run following the attack, saying that it was necessary to allow victims to escape the Sunset Park station.
“My fellow New Yorkers. We got him. We got him,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference on Wednesday.
After his arrest, Mr James was filmed being led out of the 9th Precinct in Manhattan and taken into federal custody. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday on a federal terrorism charge.
It took the NYPD about 30 hours to catch up with the suspect, who was last seen on camera entering a Park Slop subway at about 9.15am on Tuesday morning.
