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New York subway shooting, man sentenced
A man with Wisconsin ties who sprayed a New York City subway car with bullets during rush hour was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.
NEW YORK - A man with Wisconsin ties who sprayed a New York City subway car with bullets during rush hour, wounding 10 people and sparking a citywide manhunt, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.
Frank James, 64, pleaded guilty earlier this year to terrorism charges in the April 12, 2022, shooting aboard a Manhattan-bound train. He received a life sentence on 10 counts and 10 years for an 11th count.
Prosecutors had asked for the life sentence, saying James spent years carefully planning the shooting in order to "inflict maximum damage." James’ attorneys had asked for a reduced sentence of 18 years, saying he didn’t intend to kill anyone and suffered from serious mental illness.
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Prior to the sentencing, three people who were present at the time of the attack addressed the court. Fatim Gjeloshi, 21, who escaped the shooting unharmed, approached the microphone to begin recounting the morning of the shooting and said he forgave James, but then he stopped and broke down in tears. "I can't do this," he said, and walked out of the courtroom.
Also given an opportunity to speak, James offered a critique of the nation’s mental health system and social safety net, saying the system had failed him and others battling mental illness and poverty.
Frank James escorted out by the FBI and NYPD officers after having been arrested for his role in the attack on April 13, 2022. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Disguised as a construction worker on the day of the attack, James waited until the train was between stations, denying his targets a chance to flee. Then he ignited multiple smoke bombs and unleashed a barrage of bullets from a 9 mm handgun at panicked riders in the crowded train car. The attack, carried out as the train pulled into a station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, wounded victims ranging in age from 16 to 60.
As emergency responders tended to the victims, James walked calmly out of the subway station and vanished. Authorities searched for him for more than a day. They identified James as a suspect relatively quickly, using a key to a rented moving van left behind on the bloodied subway car. He was eventually arrested in Manhattan’s East Village after calling a police tip line to turn himself in.
"The fact that no one was killed by the defendant’s 32 gunshots can only be described as luck as opposed to the defendant’s intentional choice," Brooklyn prosecutors wrote in a memo to U.S. District Judge William Kuntz.
Before the shooting, James, who is Black, posted dozens of videos online under the moniker "Prophet of Doom," ranting about race, violence, his struggles with mental illness and a host of unnamed forces he claimed were out to get him. In one 2019 video, James alluded to a pending conflict in his hometown, stating that "it’s going to be very interesting what happens in New York with me." By that time, prosecutors allege, James was already in the process of planning the subway shooting.
When James pleaded guilty to the terrorism charges earlier this year, he said he only intended to cause serious bodily injury, not death. His attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, suggested that while James may have initially planned to kill people, he changed his mind in the heat of the moment.
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"In a society where, sadly, we learn nearly every day that mass shooters who intend to kill readily achieve their goals, it is far more likely that Mr. James lacked that specific intent than that he simply failed in his mission," Eisner-Grynberg wrote in a sentencing memo.
James has been held without bail for the past 17 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Connection to Wisconsin
Just before James' 2022 arrest was announced, four men went inside James' Milwaukee apartment near 6th and Clarke.
The men came out after a few minutes – but did not identify themselves. One man clarified that he is neither the property owner nor the landlord. He told FOX6 News at the time that a "consent to search" was done inside. A police source said that means the property owner granted permission, and a warrant was not needed.
James left a note at his Milwaukee address asking that his mail be forwarded to a post office box. On March 20, 2022, he posted a video online in which he described leaving Milwaukee for Philadelphia and made it clear he did not plan to return to Wisconsin.
"Consent to search" at Frank James' Milwaukee apartment
In the video, which at times can be hard to understand, he also mentions having post-traumatic stress disorder, but does not make it clear from exactly what, only saying that bad things happened in his life. He talked about the war in Ukraine and mentioned the people of Milwaukee when discussing sanctions in Russia.
A church is located next door to James' address. The pastor told FOX6 in 2022 he had brief interactions with James and recognized him on the news. James was not a member of the church.
"His personality was fine, he seemed mild-mannered to me," said Pastor Eugene Yarbrough with Mt. Zion Wings of Glory Church of God in Christ. "If he would have come to me, yes – I would have talked with him, I would have prayed with him, but I don’t know what his issues were."
"Bag with fireworks" left behind (Courtesy: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York)
Phantom Fireworks officials confirmed for FOX6 that on June 21, 2021, an individual named Frank James of Milwaukee purchased fireworks products from the Phantom Fireworks Showroom in Caledonia.
A news release says four of the items purchased are believed to be the same items that were shown in a photograph published by a TV network in April 2022. The "bag with fireworks" has been identified as having been left behind by the Brooklyn subway shooter, police said.
There is no video surveillance footage of the purchase available. As a result, Phantom Fireworks cannot confirm that the purchaser and the suspect in the Brooklyn subway shooting are the same person.