Five people who provided “critical information” that helped lead to the arrest of the man charged with this week’s mass shooting in a New York subway will share a $50,000 reward, police announced.
The suspect, wearing a gas mask, had filled a crowded subway car traveling through Brooklyn with thick black smoke from a canister and opened fire last Tuesday on morning rush-hour passengers, injuring more than 20, including 10 with gunshot wounds.
Frank James, the man accused of carrying out one of the most violent attacks on the city’s mass transit system, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday following a 30-hour search that was helped by a barrage of tips from the public.
James, 62, also called the police hotline to turn himself in, aiding in his own capture, according to his lawyers.
“We appreciate all of those who responded to our call for information to locate this suspect, including all of those whose tips did not pan out,” the city’s police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said.
She added: “We urged the public to join us in this effort to find this suspect and New Yorkers stepped up.”
James, 62, is accused of injuring 30 people by setting off smoke bombs and spraying the inside of a subway car with gunfire. No people were killed but wounded passengers staggered out on to the platform and collapsed, as other members of the public and then first responders went to their aid, after the train pulled into the station.
Other passengers ran from the subway station, and police and investigators swarmed the area in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.
All the wounded were expected to survive. About 20 others were injured by smoke canisters or in the stampede of passengers, according to prosecutors.
The NYPD said its detectives used the flow of public tips to build a timeline of events that helped them locate James. Of the people who provided tips, five were chosen whose “information contributed directly” to the suspect’s arrest.
The NYPD did not identify the five people who will evenly split the reward, which is made up of funds from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Transport Workers Union Local 100, and the New York City Police Foundation.
