Multiple were shot and injured Tuesday morning, 8:30 am on a Brooklyn train.
The incident occurred on the Manhattan bound N line at 25th street in Sunset Park. Police said that the train pulled into the station when the suspect threw a smoke bomb and opened fire, according to CBS News. The train continued to 34th street when victims got off and called for help.
At least 29 people were reportedly injured, with six shot and others treated for smoke inhalation. In an update, the NYPD reports that no active explosives were found. However, the FDNY and police said that authorities have discovered several undetonated devices.
The NYPD posted seven pictures of the wanted suspect, Frank Robert James, who has now been captured.
One of the images posted was from one of the many Youtube videos uploaded by James, where he rants about police shootings of black people and used racial epithets against white people and hispanics, according to a review from the Epoch Times. James also reportedly took to Facebook call former President Trump and his supporters racist, saying, “you may not be able to beat em but you can sure as hell shoot em.”
James also criticized Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul for announcing their efforts to help the mentally ill. He described himself as having a “crisis of mental health.” On MSNBC, Adams said that while he wasn’t sure what James was talking about “it’s clear that this individual wanted to create terror and violence.”
(READ MORE: Forte: Mayor Adams Should Call Giuliani for Advice on Crime, Not Lightfoot)
One witness who had just come from dropping her brother off at school spoke to CBS saying that she saw what appeared to be a teenager with a bullet in his knee. “As I was coming up the stairs I saw and smelled a lot of smoke. And I saw maybe a 16 year old shot in his knee. You can clearly see the bullet in his knee,” she said. The witness also claimed to see two more victims shot in their legs.
Mayor Eric Adams said that it was “miraculous” no immediate deaths were reported, adding that he believed the other passengers saved lives when giving aid to the injured victims. “I believe life was saved based on the actions that we witnessed on some of the amateur video that was released. You saw passengers coming to the aid of each other and I just cannot thank New Yorkers enough for how we responded,” Adams said on CNN.
Law enforcement officials told the Post that the gunman’s Glock jammed mid-shooting preventing him from causing more carnage. “It was lucky that it jammed because we could be talking about a lot more people in hospitals or worse,” a law-enforcement source said.
The President was briefed on the situation, Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter, adding that White House senior officials “are in touch with Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Sewell to offer any assistance as needed.”
Members of New York’s congressional delegation reportedly offered their prayers after the subway shooting. “I’d like to live in a world where shootings on subways, in schools and on our streets would be considered unfathomable. Another world is possible,” Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman tweeted.
“Praying for the people injured in the shocking Brooklyn subway attack,” Brooklyn and Queens Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries posted. “Thankful for the ongoing efforts of law enforcement to apprehend the perpetrator. We will get through this together #BrooklynStrong.”
Independent journalist Leeroy Press documented New York State Senator, Andrew Gounardes, suggesting that the rise in gun violence comes from other states.
“Facts matter,” Gounardes said. “The murder rate in Florida is higher than than the murder rate in New York. So everyone’s flocking to Florida because they feel safer down there, it’s actually a higher murder rate than here in New York. What we need is—we need Congress to finally get their act together and pass universal background checks. 86 percent of guns that are used in crimes in New York come from outside of New York City. It’s not a matter of New York’s gun laws, it’s a matter of the gun laws of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. It’s because the…laws there are so weak and Congress has refused to take action.”
He also added that when Congress brings the universal background checks for a vote congressional Republicans vote against it.
Total violent crime in Miami-Dade, Florida is up 21 percent compared to New York City’s 45 percent. In New York, the murder rate is down 11.2 percent year to date, while Miami-Dade police reported a drop of 54 percent year to date. American Pigeon reached out to Gounardes on the specific statistics he was referring to. Recent FBI and Bureau of Statistics do not have recent 2022 crime rates as of this writing. (It is also important to note that the populations of the two cities vary: according to World Population Review, Miami’s population is 2.7 million and New York City’s population stands at 8.1 million).
This story is still developing.
