New York [US], April 14 (ANI): New York police have arrested a suspect accused of shooting on a subway train in Brooklyn that left 10 people injured, New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. According to the US Attorney for Eastern District of New York Breon Peace, suspect Frank Robert James has a very rich history of arrests in previous years in several states. “His arrest history in New York is nine prior arrests dating from 1990 to 1998, those include possession of burglary tools four times, criminal sex act, theft of service two times,” Peace said during a press briefing.
James, who is 62, is well known to law enforcement and has ties in the states of Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he added. The suspect also has three arrests in the state of New Jersey in 1991, 1992 and 2007, Peace said. The suspect had opened smoke grenades on the train and fired his gun 33 times, striking at least 10 people Tuesday morning, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
Later at the scene, investigators found a Glock handgun, three extended magazines, two detonated smoke grenades, two non-detonated smoke grenades and a hatchet, Essig added. None of the injuries to the victims appears to be life-threatening, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell had said. “We know this incident is of grave concern to New Yorkers,” Sewell said. “We cannot lose sight of victims in this city. We will use every resource we can to bring those to justice who continue to prey on the citizens of New York.”
According to Sewell, 10 people were shot and 13 others injured after a man wearing a gas mask opened fire and threw a smoke canister aboard the moving train during the morning rush hour. “He then shot multiple passengers as the train pulled into 36th Street station in Sunset Park. 10 people were injured by the gunfire & an additional 13 were either injured as they rushed to get out of the train station or they suffered smoke inhalation,” she had said.
Meanwhile, New York City agencies are offering a joint USD 50,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the suspect involved in Tuesday’s shooting, as per a statement from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The MTA and Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 both offered USD 12,500 each in reward money and the New York City Police Foundation offered USD 25,000 in reward money to bring the total reward offering to USD 50,000.
Social media praises man who alerted police on Brooklyn subway shooter, calls him ‘hero’
New York [US], April 14 (ANI): Zak Dahhan, a 21-year old security camera installer has emerged as a hero after getting Frank Robert James, the suspect of the Brooklyn subway shooting arrested on Wednesday afternoon. Dahhan, who first spotted the suspect, also held an impromptu press conference on 1st Avenue and has briefed about the incident. He said that he had warned everyone he saw, and then flagged down a police car.
“If someone doesn’t stop him, he’ll hurt more people,” he told reporters, adding that after the police arrested the suspect,” the Brooklyn native thanked God. The 62-year-old suspect had opened smoke grenades on the train and fired his gun 33 times, wounding at least 23 people on Tuesday morning.
In an interview with Fox News, Zak Dahhan said that he was doing maintenance on a store’s cameras when he saw James walking in the busy East Village neighbourhood with a bag over his shoulder.
He alerted police, and Ninth Precinct officers took James into custody without anyone else getting hurt.
“If you smoke one cigar, you’re gonna want to smoke two cigars, you know? Like, this guy is gonna do it again if we don’t catch him, and we catch him. Thank God!,” he said.
After interacting with reporters, Dahhan was taken by police for an official statement.
While leaving, the gathered crowd continued cheering the young man and dubbing him a “hero.”
Footage of Dahhan at the same location has also been getting a fair amount of attention, with people praising him as a “hero.” He is being praised on social media after Wednesday footage revealed he spotted Frank James, shortly before his arrest.
According to reports, Dahhan said he has grown up in Syria during the Middle Eastern country’s horrific civil war and now lives in Union City, New Jersey. “We don’t want any problem here in America because here my life is good,” he added, according to media reports.
New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell today informed that the suspect of the subway shooting has been arrested. “We hope this arrest brings some solace to the victims and the people of the city of New York,” she said. He says news of the presser of the shooting incident left him unable to sleep. (ANI)
