Police identify person of interest linked to NY subway shooting that left 10 gunshot wounds

The New York Police Department has identified a person of interest in connection to the Tuesday morning subway shooting in Brooklyn.

Authorities are looking for a man identified as Frank James and have released a photo of him. Police are offering $50,000 to anyone who provides information leading to his whereabouts.

A man wearing an orange work vest and gas mask opened a canister that filled a New York subway car with smoke and began shooting Tuesday. At least 23 people were injured, 10 of them by bullets.

The shooting began when a train stopped at 36th Street in Sunset Park, in Brooklyn, in a neighborhood that is predominantly Hispanic and Asian in population. Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack was not being investigated as terrorism, but that she “wasn’t ruling anything out.”

Police scour the city for her and report that she had found a rented van that she says is linked to the attack. Vehicle keys were found at the scene of the shooting, as well as a credit card which led to the identification of James as a person of interest. There are hundreds of agents dedicated to the investigation.

Police obtained an image of the person of interest in a YouTube video

Frank James, 62, has addresses in Wisconsin and Philadelphia, according to police. The investigations seek to clarify his relationship with the shooting. Apparently, James would have rented the truck in recent days, drove it to the subway station where the attack took place and left it there.

Authorities released a screenshot of Mr. James taken from a YouTube video posted by a channel belonging to the username Prophetoftruth88.

The videos showed a man launching into long tirades. Two officials involved in the investigation told The New York Times that James was the person who appeared in the recordings.

In a video posted on YouTube on March 1, the man featured in the videos criticized New York Mayor Eric Adams for his new subway public safety policies targeting the homeless.

In the video, the man talks about the ease of committing crime on the subway, saying that even with numerous police officers deployed on the subway, “I would still go down.”

“You can’t stop any crime on any subway,” he says, using multiple expletives. “It can slow it down, but it’s not going to stop it.”

Security cameras didn’t work during subway shooting

Authorities also said the attacker used a 9mm Glock pistol, which he fired about 33 times, hitting 10 people. They also said security cameras at three subway stations were not working at the time of the shooting and that they are investigating the cause of the failure.

The head of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) system, Janno Lieber, told reporters that he did not know why the cameras were not working.

Investigators suspect the gun jammed, preventing the assailant from firing further, officials said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has completed an urgent search to identify the manufacturer, seller and initial owner of the weapon.

In addition to the pistol, police found three magazines, an axe, explosive items and a liquid believed to be gasoline, all linked to the attacker who carried out the shooting.