New Security for NYC Mayor Eric Adams After Shooter Turns Train To ‘War Zone’

Warning: This article contains graphic images.

New York City police are hunting for a man named Frank James in their search for a gunman who turned a quiet subway car into a “war zone” on Tuesday morning. In an evening press conference, James was identified as a “person of interest” by the city’s chief of detectives, who said it was still unknown if he had any definitive connection to the shooting, which left 10 people shot and another 19 wounded.

James, 62, is believed to be the renter of the abandoned U-Haul van that matched a key that had been dumped at the crime scene.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said investigators had found, in connection to James, some “concerning posts” made online about homelessness, New York, and Mayor Eric Adams, who is isolated after testing positive for the coronavirus, and that the mayor’s security detail had been increased out of “an abundance of caution.”

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Hours earlier, a suspect in a neon green nylon vest had set off two smoke bombs and opened fire on a northbound subway train during rush hour, sparking chaos as it pulled into the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and sending commuters “running for their lives.”

Five of the gunshot victims were in critical but stable condition on Tuesday, and none has life-threatening injuries, officials said. A 14-year-old is among the injured, an NYPD official told The Daily Beast.

By Tuesday evening, police had located the abandoned U-Haul with Arizona license plates, believed to be connected to the shooter, on Kings Highway, an NYPD source confirmed to The Daily Beast. The bomb squad was called in and a local business owner said there was heavy police activity on the block and helicopters overhead.

The van was found in Gravesend, Brooklyn, several stops from Sunset Park, where the shooting took place, and hundreds of detectives have been sweeping the area covering the eight intervening train stations, a top police official said. After it was searched Tuesday evening, the van was moved to a “clean location” where NYPD and FBI officials can forensically examine it.

As he fled the scene, the assailant ditched a handgun and three extended capacity magazines, an NYPD supervisor told The Daily Beast. NBC and ABC reported he also left behind a backpack, a bag of fireworks and smoke canisters, a hatchet, a spray bottle of gasoline, and one round jammed in the gun, which possibly prevented him from causing more bloodshed.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack was not being investigated as an act of terrorism but that police have not ruled out any motives.

“Just before 8:24 a.m. as a Manhattan-bound N train waited to enter 36th Street, an individual on that train donned what appeared to be a gas mask, he took a canister out of his bag and opened it... he then opened fire,” she said at an afternoon briefing.

She described the suspect as a Black man, approximately 5-feet-5 tall and heavily built, who was seen wearing a gas mask, gray hoodie, and a green construction vest. He was seen fleeing the area shortly after the shooting, but Adams confirmed reports that CCTV cameras in the station were not working at the time.

Photos from the scene showed people lying in pools of blood on the station platform, and drag marks could be seen in some of the subway cars, apparently from the wounded trying to flee. Witnesses said people in the train car were shot as it moved to the next station, inundated with smoke.

The shooter had been talking to himself just before the shooting, according to a high NYPD official.

Sam Carcamo, a Brooklyn-based illustrator and designer who was on his way to work, said he didn’t know at first what to make of the scene, which was across the platform from the train he was on.

“The [train] car directly across from me had smoke so thick that I couldn’t see inside of it,” Carcamo told The Daily Beast. “At first I was like, ‘Oh shit, someone’s getting really high on that train.’ And then the doors opened up, and it was the wrong color smoke, like dark, dark, dirty smoke. And people started running out, screaming... it was like they were running for their lives... Then I notice that there’s a guy on the ground, profusely bleeding out all over the place.”

Carcamo said MTA employees rushed down to get people back onto the train he had been on and ferried the passengers to safety at the next station. Once they pulled in, Carcamo said he realized there were “a bunch of people injured on our train.”

“One person had a gunshot wound through their leg, there was blood all down their pants,” he said. “One woman had a wound in her lower back, another woman had an injury in her left shoulder. And as we’re talking, a guy started screaming about how he thinks he’s gonna die—he realized he had been shot. He started going into shock... It took a little while for the actual FDNY, NYPD, and paramedics to show up, probably about 10 to 15 minutes, which felt like a fucking lifetime.”

A woman who witnessed the incident told the New York Post the barrage of gunfire was so intense she “lost count” of how many rounds were fired.

Twenty-one of the victims were reportedly transported to NYU Langone Hospital with injuries including gunshot wounds and smoke inhalation, but 10 had been discharged by the afternoon. The other 11 victims were said to be in stable condition. Three victims were taken to Methodist Hospital in unknown condition, and another five were taken to Maimonides Medical Center.

The gunman fired at least 33 shots before his guns jammed, according to the high NYPD official who also noted that the jam could have been easily cleared had the shooter been trained in firearms.

Juliana Fonda of WNYC told Gothamist she was on the N train when she saw something “terrifying” happening one car over and sending frantic passengers her way.

“They were trying to get into our car, away from something that was happening in the back of the train. None of us in the front of the train knew what was going on, but people were pounding and looking behind them, running and trying to get onto the train,” she said, adding that she heard a “lot of loud pops” and saw “smoke in the other car.”

“I did see people laying on the ground on the platform at 36th Street. There were people in the front of the car of the R train that we were shuffled into that were laying on the ground, that had obviously been shot.”

Carcamo, for one, will be taking the rest of the day off.

“I’ve been joking that I had a very Gotham City morning,” he told The Daily Beast. “Told my boss I won’t be coming into work today.”

Jackie Mak, a 26-year-old photographer in Brooklyn, was on a Manhattan-bound D train that passed the bloody scene around 8:30 a.m.

“I just saw two bodies laying on the floor leaking out blood,” Mak told The Daily Beast, adding that people were screaming for help but he didn’t see any gunman. “This is before cops even arrived.”

Mak said his train initially stopped ahead of the 36th Street station, and the conductor announced there was a delay due to smoke. “Seeing and hearing crime around me isn’t new to me, but to see multiple people shot is horrible,” Mak added. “But despite all the crime in the subway, New Yorkers really don’t have any other viable and affordable option of travel.”

FDNY Deputy Commissioner Frank Dwyer told The Daily Beast that the original call came in for smoke at the subway station. “Upon arrival, units discovered multiple people shot, and several undetonated devices at the location.”

In a video statement from COVID isolation at Gracie Mansion, New York City, the mayor stressed that “we will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized, even by a single individual.”

—with additional reporting by Pilar Melendez and Kate Briquelet