The New York subway shooting suspect Frank Jamesappeared this Thursday before a New York court where Judge Roanne L. Mann informed him that he will be tried for “terrorist attack” and ordered his preventive detention without bail.
James, a 62-year-old African-American, faces life in prison.
The accused “opened fire on passengers in a crowded subway carinterrupting their morning commute in a way this city hasn’t seen in over 20 years,” Assistant District Attorney Sara Winik said in filing charges.
“The defendant’s attack was premeditated, carefully planned and caused terror among the victims and throughout the city,” it added.
(Also read: US arrests Colombian fugitive convicted of killing his wife).
The defense requested a psychiatric evaluation of the accused, who answered with a laconic “yes” to the judge’s questions if he understood the charges once morest him.
Total, 23 people were injured, 10 by bullets, and another 13 by smoke inhalation and other damage suffered in the stampede.
James’s attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, who called for a “fair trial,” said that when she saw his photo on the news, he called the police to inform them of his location in lower Manhattan.
Dressed in a loose khaki shirt and mask, James was seated between two lawyers and several times took notes that he passed on to his defenders.confirmed an AFP journalist.
(You can read: United Kingdom: first official resigns following the ‘Partygate’ sanctions).
The accused, who was arrested Wednesday on a street in southern Manhattan without offering any resistance, is accused of shooting 33 times at passengers on a subway car during rush hour at a Brooklyn station following activating two smoke grenades.
In addition to being recognized by some passengers traveling in the car, the police found the keys to the vehicle he had rented in Philadelphia, as well as the orange and green vest and construction helmet he was wearing at the time of the attack.
He also left a bag with flares, a plastic container with gasoline and a torch.
The defendant, who had arrived in New York the day before the attack from Pennsylvania, used a 9mm Glock 17 pistol he purchased in Ohio in the shooting.
(You may be interested in: Argentina: the protests return with the demand for more aid).
In videos that he had posted on YouTube before the attack, James referred to the New York subway system and attacked the mayor of the financial capital Eric Adams: “What are you doing, brother? What’s going on with the homeless situation?”
“Every car that came in was full of homeless people, so many that I mightn’t be there,” said James, who in some embraces conspiracy theories.
In the search of properties associated with the suspect in Pennsylvania, the police have found ammunition of various types, a taser, a rifle charger, and a smoke bomb.
AFP
