filming

New York authorities arrested the alleged perpetrator of the bombing perpetrated the day before in a Brooklyn subway train, announced the mayor of the city, Eric Adams. Several shots were then fired in the rush hour, resulting in 23 injuries, including 10 from bullets.

The suspect was found in Manhattan, according to the NBC television network, and city authorities announced he would stand trial for a “terrorist attack.” He will be prosecuted under a law that prohibits “terrorist attacks and other violence against (…) public transportation,” a federal prosecutor announced.

“He will appear in federal court in Brooklyn and, if convicted, face life in prison,” Attorney Breon Peace said at a news conference.

“We will continue to tighten the trap around him and stop him”, promised in the morning the Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, expected at the turning point on the issue of the fight against crime, he who had made it a campaign theme to be elected on Last year.

Police had been searching for more than 24 hours for Frank James, a 62-year-old African American accused of repeatedly shooting at an N train at the 36th Street station in south Brooklyn.

On Wednesday, New Yorkers received an “urgent” message on their phones asking them to provide any useful information to investigators. A $50,000 reward had been placed on the table.

A suspect known to the police

The man had a YouTube page, dubbed “prophetoftruth88” (prophet of truth) taken down Wednesday morning for “violating the community rules” of the site. He has posted several videos where we see him launch long tirades, sometimes rambling and vehement, in which he evokes racial issues, insecurity in New York, especially on the subway, and attacks homosexuals, or the new mayor Eric Adams.

Known to the police after several arrests, he was arrested thanks to reports.

As the hunt for the killer, described as “dangerous” the day before, continued, millions of New Yorkers took to the subway, one of the world’s largest networks, to get to work, some posting selfies on social media to show that life was returning to normal.

“You don’t get up in the morning thinking you won’t make it home or you’ll get hurt going. It’s New York, the city never stops,” Sony Washington, a worried 35-year-old Machinist, told AFP that the suspect is still in the wild.

“I’ve always been paying attention to my surroundings since 9/11 (2001). But there have been more incidents on the docks recently, so I’m paying more attention,” added Laura Swalm, 49, who lives in neighboring New Jersey.

Thirty-three shells in one minute

At around 08:30 (12:30 GMT) on Tuesday morning, at a time when subway trains are crowded, the individual, who was wearing a gas mask, ignited two devices that smoked the car, then fired to passengers as the train entered the station.

“We were really lucky it wasn’t much more serious,” NYPD Chief Keechant Sewell said, summing up the authorities’ relief. Suspect fired 33 shots.

“All you see is black smoke, and I turned right, and I saw this guy in a mask,” one of the victims, Hourari Benkada, testified to CNN from her hospital bed.

“The shooting lasted about a minute (…). I’ve never heard so many gunshots… (…) It probably had magazines extended or some other weapon on fire,” the man added, hit in the knee. Investigators found a handgun and three magazines at the scene.

The attack comes as New York has faced a crime spike from the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides rising from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, although the annual toll remains well below the more than 2,000 per year registered in the early 1990s.

Shootings have also remained on the rise since the beginning of the year, rising from 260 to 296 in the first quarter of 2022, according to police data, some of which have marked tempers, such as the death of a 17-year-old teenager on Friday. years old, shot and killed outside a high school in the Bronx.

With the AFP