Frank James posted dozens of movies ranting about race, violence and his struggles with psychological sickness. One stands out for its relative calm: A silent shot of a packed New York City subway automotive during which he raises his finger to level out passengers, one after the other.
Even as police arrested James on Wednesday within the Brooklyn subway capturing that wounded 10 individuals, they had been nonetheless looking for a motive from a flood of particulars concerning the 62-year-old Black man’s life.
An erratic work historical past. Arrests for a string of largely low-level crimes. A storage locker with extra ammo. And hours of rambling, bigoted, profanity-laced movies on his YouTube channel that time to a deep, simmering anger.
“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 the place he takes on the moniker “Prophet of Doom”.
After a 30-hour manhunt, James was arrested with out incident after a tipster — thought by police to be James himself — stated he could possibly be discovered close to a McDonald’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Mayor Eric Adams triumphantly proclaimed “We got him!” Police stated their high precedence was getting the suspect, now charged with a federal terrorism offense, off the streets as they examine their largest unanswered query: Why? A chief trove of proof, they stated, is his YouTube movies. He appears to have opinions about almost all the pieces — racism in America, New York City’s new mayor, the state of psychological well being providers, 9/11, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Black ladies.
A federal legal grievance cited one during which James ranted about too many homeless individuals on the subway and put the blame on New York City’s mayor.
“What are you doing, brother?” he stated within the video posted March 27. “Every car I went to was loaded with homeless people. It was so bad, I couldn’t even stand.” James then railed concerning the therapy of Black individuals in an April 6 video cited within the grievance, saying, “And so the message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting.” In a video posted a day earlier than the assault, James criticizes crime in opposition to Black individuals and says issues would solely change if sure individuals had been “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.” Surveillance cameras noticed James coming into the subway system turnstiles Tuesday morning, dressed as a upkeep or building employee in a yellow arduous hat and orange working jacket with reflective tape.
Police say fellow riders heard him say solely “oops” as he set off one smoke grenade in a crowded subway automotive because it rolled right into a station. He then set off a second smoke grenade and began firing, police stated. In the smoke and chaos that ensued, police say James made his getaway by slipping right into a R-train going the wrong way and exited after the primary cease.
Left behind on the scene was the gun, prolonged magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black rubbish can, a rolling cart, gasoline and the important thing to a U-Haul van, police stated.
That key led investigators to James, and clues to a lifetime of setbacks and anger as he bounced amongst manufacturing facility and upkeep jobs, obtained fired at the least twice, moved amongst Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Investigators stated James had 12 prior arrests in New York and New Jersey from 1990 to 2007, together with for possession of housebreaking instruments, legal intercourse act, trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct.
James had no felony convictions and was not prohibited from buying or proudly owning a firearm. Police stated the gun used within the assault was legally bought in 2011.
A search of James’ Philadelphia storage unit and residence turned up at the least two varieties of ammunition, together with the type used with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a taser and a blue smoke cannister.
Police stated James was born and raised in New York City. In his movies, he stated he completed a machine store course in 1983 then labored as a gear machinist at Curtiss-Wright, an aerospace producer in New Jersey, till 1991 when he was he was hit by a one-two punch of unhealthy information: He was fired from his job and, quickly after, his father whom he had lived with in New Jersey died.
Records present James filed a grievance in opposition to the aerospace firm in federal court docket quickly after he misplaced his job alleging racial discrimination, nevertheless it was dismissed a yr later by a decide. He says in a single video, with out providing specifics, that he “couldn’t get any justice for what I went through.” A spokesperson for Curtiss-Wright didn’t instantly reply to a name searching for remark.
James describes going out and in of a number of psychological well being amenities within the Seventies.
“Mr. Mayor, let me say to you I’m a victim of your mental health program in New York City,” James says in a video earlier this yr, including he’s “full of hate, full anger and bitterness.” James says he later was a affected person at Bridgeway House, a psychological well being facility in New Jersey.
“My goal at Bridgeway in 1997 was to get off Social Security and go back to f—— work,” he says in a video, including that he enrolled in a university and took a course in computer-aided design and manufacturing.
James says he finally obtained a job at telecommunications large Lucent Technologies in New Jersey, however says he ended up getting fired and returned to Bridgeway House, this time not as a affected person however as an worker on the upkeep employees.
