Brooklyn subway shooting: 4 victims still hospitalized. Suspect Frank James denied bail
Mayor Eric Adams is due to hold a virtual press conference on Friday to thank frontline workers for their handling of the shooting and its aftermath.
Twenty-nine people have been hospitalized after James allegedly threw smoke grenades and fired 33 bullets into a passenger car during the Brooklyn stampede on Tuesday morning.
Ten people were shot and 19 others suffered injuries related to smoke inhalation, a fall or a panic attack, officials said. The four victims who were still in hospital on Thursday were in stable condition, according to hospital officials.
City officials want to beef up security in the subway system, the mayor told CNN on Wednesday, noting that the process would involve looking at technology that could detect if someone is carrying a gun.
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Prosecutors: Attack was ‘carefully planned’
During James’ hearing, Assistant United States Attorney Sara Winik described the attack as “premeditated and carefully planned”.
Prosecutors also argued that James was a flight risk and a danger to the community, according to a letter submitted by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace to a federal judge.
“Defendant committed a premeditated mass shooting in the New York City subway and then fled, with a stockpile of ammunition and other dangerous items stowed in his storage unit,” the letter reads.
Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg warned against rushing to judgment.
“We are all learning what happened on that train,” she said outside the courthouse. “What we do know is this: Yesterday Mr. James saw his picture on the news. He called Crime Stoppers for help. He told them where he was. Initial press reports and police in cases like this are often inaccurate. Mr. James is entitled to a fair trial and we will ensure that he receives one.”
The shooting James is accused of took place as a train traveled from the 59th Street station to the 36th Street station in Brooklyn just before 8.30am on Tuesday.
The alleged shooter wore a yellow helmet, an orange reflective jacket and a surgical mask as he set off at least one smoke bomb and began shooting people with a Glock pistol, according to a criminal complaint. Witnesses saw the suspect wearing a gas mask, the complaint states.
The doors would not open until 2 minutes later, when the train reached the 36th Street station, and passengers fled the train as smoke followed them, the video shows.
Other victims with bloody wounds fell to the platform as they screamed for medical attention. Blood streaked the subway platform, with people sitting and lying on the platform, photos taken at the venue.
The evidence linking the suspect to the shooting
James was first named a person of interest after authorities determined he had rented the U-Haul pickup truck whose keys were found at the scene. Investigators declared him a suspect Wednesday morning after learning he had purchased the gun left at the scene.
Authorities also found a bag containing a Glock handgun, a plastic container containing gasoline, a torch, a U-Haul key and several bank cards, and another bag containing fireworks. indicates the complaint.
James purchased the gun in Ohio in 2011, the bank cards bore James’s name, and the U-Haul key was connected to a pickup truck James had rented in Philadelphia, according to the complaint.
A neon construction jacket left on the subway platform had a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia registered in James’s name, the complaint states.
Federal prosecutors believe he went to the warehouse full of ammunition and weapons the day before the attack, according to court documents. A search of the unit revealed additional ammunition and “a threaded 9mm pistol barrel which allows for the attachment of a silencer or suppressor”.
Hours before James’ arrest, 17-year-old Jack Griffin said he was on a field trip with his high school photography class when he spotted the suspect sitting on a bench on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Griffin submitted the tip to NYPD Crime Stoppers around 10:30 a.m.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I was looking for things to film (with a camera), and I found probably one of the most wanted people.”
CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Chris Boyette, Travis Caldwell, Alaa Elassar, Rob Frehse, Jason Hanna, Chris Hippensteel, Artemis Moshtaghian, Paul P. Murphy, Peter Nickeas, Sara Ashley O’Brien, Sharif Paget, Yon Pomrenze, Kara Scannell, Pervaiz Shallwani and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
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