The 62-year-old suspect accused in April of shooting multiple people on a crowded subway train in Sunset Park was indicted over the weekend, officials said.
A federal grand injury indicted Frank R. James on Saturday, charging him with one count of committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system and one count of discharging a firearm during a violent crime. He now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, and is being held without bail, officials said.
James allegedly shot 10 people riding on a Manhattan-bound N train on April 12th as it approached a station in Brooklyn. Several other people sustained minor injuries while fleeing the scene, authorities said.
He was arrested the next day on April 13th in the East Village after a citywide manhunt. According to prosecutors, James was in possession of “a stockpile” of weapons across “various locations,” including a high-capacity rifle magazine in Philadelphia and a propane tank inside his truck in Brooklyn.
At the site of the shooting, authorities found his cellphone, bank card and a key to a van he’d rented, as well as a handgun they traced to him.
In videos posted to YouTube, James said he wanted to “watch people die” and made bigoted statements against Black, white and Hispanic people.
The attack, coming against a backdrop of rising crime and a number of other high-profile, violent incidents, deeply unsettled the public. Images and videos of the incident showed gunshot victims lying bloodied on the subway platform and on the floor of subway cars.
After the attack, investigators said James boarded a train across the platform and escaped. He remained at large for roughly 30 hours.
