Who is Frank James, ‘person of interest’ in Brooklyn subway station attack?

The person of interest - Frank James - appears to have posted dozens of videos on YouTube in recent years, which even included threats to the New York mayor Eric Adams. And now the mayor’s personal security has been intensified.

Team Newsable

New York, First Published Apr 13, 2022, 9:31 AM IST | Last Updated Apr 13, 2022, 9:31 AM IST

A gunman in a gas mask and construction vest set off a smoke grenade and fired a barrage of at least 33 bullets in a rush-hour subway train in New York, injuring at least 20 people. Police were scouring the city for the shooter and trying to track down the renter of a van possibly connected to the violence.

“More than 20 people were left injured - ten were reportedly hit directly by the gunfire while 13 more people suffered from smoke inhalation or were otherwise injured,” authorities have said.

What we know so far:

At an early evening news briefing, police named a “person of interest” in the investigation as Frank James, who investigators believed had rented the U-Haul vehicle.

Police said they recovered the key to the van at the crime scene and it had been rented in Philadelphia. James had addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, officials said.

The subway assailant was described by police from eyewitness accounts as a man of heavy build, wearing an orange vest, a grey sweatshirt, a green helmet and surgical mask.

Frank James reportedly runs a YouTube page named “prophet oftruth88697” which has over 700 subscribers. The prolific YouTuber has posted dozens of videos on YouTube so far. The video that mentioned Adams was posted on March 1, where he describes Mayor Adams as ‘most dangerous man’, a US-based reporter Katie McQue wrote in a tweet.

“There were some concerning social media posts police believe may be connected to James,” NYPD commissioner Keechant Sewell was quoted as saying by several US media outlets. “He mentions homelessness, he mentioned New York, and he does mention Mayor Adams, and as a result of that abundance of caution, we’re going to heighten his security detail,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said as per NY Post.

In a long, frequently digressive and bigoted rant, the man in the video elaborated on the ease of committing crime in the subway, saying that even with numerous police officers deployed to the subway, “I’d still get off.”

“He can’t stop no crime in no subways,” the man said, using multiple expletives. “He may slow it down but he ain’t stopping it.”

“That means you’d have to have police in every station and that’s just not possible,” he added.

Sewell said at the news conference Tuesday that Adams’ security detail would be increased in light of the videos.

Separately, the authorities offered up to $50,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect in the attack.

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