New York police arrest man wanted in Brooklyn subway shooting

The man suspected of firing more than 30 shots in a gun attack on a New York subway train has been charged with a federal terror offence.

Frank R James, 62, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon on the Lower East Side in Manhattan by two patrol officers without incident and is being held at a local police precinct.

At a press conference an hour or so after his arrest, law enforcement representatives said that the gun used in the attack, a 9mm Glock, was purchased by James in Ohio in 2011.

At least four schoolchildren aged 12 to 16 are believed to be among the 29 passengers injured requiring medical treatment after suffering from bullet wounds, smoke inhalation, falls and panic. Five of 10 people shot were reported to be in critical but stable condition; another 19 were injured, though nobody was reported to be in life-threatening condition.

Details of his criminal history include nine previous arrests in New York between 1992 and 1998 for crimes including burglary, theft and sexual attack, as well as three in New Jersey (1992, 1993 and 2007) for crimes including disorderly conduct and trespass. He does not have a felony record and he was not known to the FBI, officers said.

So far they believe that James boarded an R train at Sunset Park after firing 33 shots in a packed N train carriage.

Authorities had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the gunman, who was wearing a gas mask as he fired 33 shots on the packed train, in what is the worst violent incident on public transit in recent history.

James, who has links to Wisconsin, Philadelphia, Ohio, New York and New Jersey, has posted dozens of bizarre rambling videos on social media in recent years in which he has expressed a range of bigoted views on topics ranging from mental health services, death and race to Ukraine. Police released a screenshot of James taken from a YouTube video.

In one uploaded last month from a rented white van, James sounds relaxed as he rambles about a range of topics, including moving out of his apartment, workplace troubles, the state of humanity, the climate crisis and overpopulation.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one neighbor told the New York Times that James walked with a limp, and described him as quiet and unthreatening, while another said he was grumpy, standoffish and weird.

In an earlier interview on WNYC, Adams said that the city was exploring new gun detection technologies for the subway, which could be piloted soon. He also said the state, not the city, was responsible for cameras on the subway system.

As law enforcement searched for James, the subway service seemed back to normal at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. On Tuesday, graphic images had shown chaotic scenes on the platform after the mass shooting, with wounded passengers lying on the ground as others administered tourniquets to stem bleeding from their legs.

Other footage recorded as the train pulled into the station showed black smoke pouring out as the doors opened, followed by passengers, some screaming, others stumbling and falling to the platform. Phone images showed blood on the floor of the car.