New York mass shooting suspect taken in by police

The suspect sought in the New York City subway mass shooting was arrested on Wednesday, as commuters returned to the transit system following the chaos on a Brooklyn train in which 29 people were injured.

Frank R. James, 62, was arrested by patrol officers in Manhattan's East Village after he informed police of his whereabouts. Police got a tip that James was in a McDonald's restaurant in the neighborhood, New York Police Department Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said.

The tip was provided by James, who told police to come and get him, two law enforcement officials said. They weren't authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, The Associated Press reported.

James has been charged with having committed a terrorist act on a mass transit system, according to Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York. If convicted, James could face a sentence of up to life in prison, Peace said.

Police are still trying to establish the motive for the incident. In a video posted a day before the attack, James criticized crime against black people and said things will only change if certain people were "stomped, kicked and tortured" out of their "comfort zone".

Criminal history

James has a significant criminal history, officials said, including nine prior arrests in New York, mostly for misdemeanors, and three arrests in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, witnesses said a man donning a construction suit and gas mask tossed two smoke grenades on the floor and fired more than 30 shots before fleeing the Manhattan-bound N train at the 36th Street Station platform in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The authorities said 10 people were hit by the gunfire, five of whom were critically injured. Overall, 29 people were hospitalized in connection with the shooting.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, said at a daily news briefing on Thursday that a Chinese national was wounded in the mass shooting and is in stable condition.

More than 3 million riders have been taking the subways in New York City on recent weekdays, according to estimates released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA.

Still, Midtown Manhattan is recording some of the lowest foot traffic in the city, and ridership on the subway system has dropped during the pandemic as white-collar workers opt for entirely remote or hybrid schedules. In the days before the attack, weekday ridership figures were less than 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to the MTA.

No cameras appeared to be fully operational when the shooting occurred that morning, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said on Tuesday.

In September, MTA officials announced that the installation of roughly 10,000 cameras across all stations had been completed, and there has never been more than 1 percent of cameras out of service at a time, The New York Times reported.

Agencies contributed to this story.