Brooklyn subway suspect tipped off police to his location
The man accused of shooting 10 people on a Brooklyn subway train was arrested Wednesday and charged with a federal terrorism offense after the suspect called police to come get him, law enforcement officials said, Associated Press reported.
Frank R. James, 62, was taken into custody about 30 hours after the violence on a rush-hour train, which left people around the city on edge.
“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
James was due to appear in court Thursday on a charge that pertains to terrorist or other violent attacks against mass transit systems and carries a sentence of up to life in prison, Brooklyn US Attorney Breon Peace said.
In recent months, James railed in videos on his YouTube channel about racism and violence in the US and about his struggles with mental health care in New York City, and he criticized Adams’ policies on mental health and subway safety. But the motive for the subway attack remains unclear, and there’s no indication James had ties to terror organizations, international or otherwise, Peace said.
James didn’t respond to reporters’ shouted questions as he was led to a police car Wednesday afternoon. He was transferred hours later to federal Bureau of Prisons custody and was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. A message seeking comment was sent to a lawyer representing him, according to the Associated Press.
Police had urged the public to help find him, releasing his name and photo and even sending a cellphone alert before they got a tip Wednesday.
The tipster was James, calling to say he knew he was wanted and that police could find him at a McDonald’s in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, two law enforcement officials said. They weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
James was gone when officers arrived, but he was soon spotted on a busy corner nearby, Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said.
Passer-by Aleksei Korobow said he saw four police cars zoom past, and when he caught up to them, James was in handcuffs as a crowd of people looked on.
“There was nowhere left for him to run,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
The arrest came as the gunshot victims, and at least a dozen others injured in the attack, tried to recover.
“I don’t think I could ever ride a train again,” Hourari Benkada, a Manhattan hotel housekeeping manager who was shot in the leg, told CNN from a hospital bed, Associated Press reported.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited victims as young as 12 in a hospital Tuesday night. One had been heading to class at Borough of Manhattan Community College when he was hit by either a bullet or shrapnel and needed surgery, the governor said.
Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry said an 18-year-old Guatemalan national, Rudy Alfredo Pérez Vásquez, was hospitalized but “out of danger” Wednesday after being injured in the attack.
James detonated two smoke grenades and fired at least 33 shots with a 9 mm handgun in a subway car packed with commuters, police said.
When the first smoke bomb went off, a passenger asked what he was doing, according to a witness account to police.
“Oops,” James said, set off a second, then brandished the gun and opened fire, Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
When the train stopped at a station and terrified riders fled, James apparently hopped another train — the same one many were steered to for safety, police said. He got out at the next station, disappearing into the nation’s most populous city.
But James left behind numerous clues at the crime scene, including the gun — which he bought in Ohio in 2011 — ammunition magazines, a hatchet, smoke grenades, gasoline, a bank card in his name and the key to a U-Haul van he rented Monday in Philadelphia, according to police and a court complaint, according to the Associated Press.
Tucked in an orange workers’ jacket, which he apparently tossed on a subway platform, was a receipt for a Philadelphia storage unit. Authorities found ammunition, targets and a pistol barrel in the storage locker and learned he’d been there on Monday, the complaint said.
The van was found, unoccupied, near a station where investigators believe James entered the subway system.
Surveillance cameras captured the van arriving from Philadelphia early Tuesday, and a man wearing what appeared to be the same orange jacket leaving the vehicle near the station.
James was born in New York but had lived recently in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, authorities said. Bruce Allen, a neighbor near a Philadelphia apartment where James stayed for the last couple of weeks, said the man never spoke to him, even when moving in.
James had worked at a variety of manufacturing and other jobs, according to his videos. Police said he’d been arrested 12 times in New York and New Jersey between 1990 and 2007 on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to possession of burglary tools, but he has no felony convictions.
His hours of disjointed, expletive-filled videos range from current events, to his life story, to bigoted remarks about people of various backgrounds. James is Black, according to the Associated Press.
Contractors finding a way around electoral rules
With the Election Commission barring contractors from filing candidacy in the upcoming local level elections, there have been several reports of construction company owners transferring their firms to their relatives’ names.
Most of these reports have come from places like Bajura, Pyuthan, Jajarkot and Dhanusha. In Bajura alone, as many as 12 contractors have transferred ownership of their companies. With the May 13 polls approaching, the company registration office in the district is notably busy these days.
Nriparaj Khatri, the incumbent ward chair of Budinanda Municipality-1, recently transferred ownership of his company, Lokmani Construction and Order Suppliers, in his daughter’s name. Earlier, he was operating a construction company while also holding the post of ward chairman. He wishes to contest in the upcoming local polls for a second term.
A Congress member, Khatri recently registered his company in the name of his daughter Netru.
Hari Bahadur Rokaya of Gaumul Rural Municipality, Kali Bahadur Shahi of Jagannath Rural Municipality and Krishnaraj Padhyay of Budinanda Municipality are other construction company owners who, like Khatri, were elected in the 2017 polls and are planning to get elected for a second term. They all have transferred ownership of their companies to the names of their close family members in the wake of the candidate criteria set by the Election Commission.
Sundar Bista, who owns Dinesh Construction and Order Suppliers Construction, is planning to enter the race for the post of ward chairman from Budinanda-1. He had made an unsuccessful bid for the post five years ago. He too has transferred his company to his younger brother Uttam.
The number of contractors hoping to get election tickets from major political parties is also high in Pyuthan and Jajarkot districts.
Sunil Shahi of Mallarani Rural Municipality, Pyuthan, has been involved in construction for over three decades now. He is also a CPN-UML member and the aspirant for the post of the rural municipality chair.
Shovaram Neupane of Gaumukhi Rural Municipality, who owns Hariyali Construction Service, is another contractor who is planning to run for the post of rural municipality chair. He is also a former vice-president of the Pyuthan chapter of Contractors’ Association of Nepal and a Nepali Congress supporter.
There are dozens of contractors in Pyuthan, eyeing for elected office in the upcoming elections.
In Jajarkot district, Ratna Bahadur Khadka, who is the central vice-president of Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal, is contesting for the post of mayor from Chhedagad Municipality.
Khadka is also the district chapter vice-president of Congress. A party meeting recently nominated his name for the mayoral candidate, sidelining eight other aspirants.
In Janakpurdham Sub-metropolitan City of Dhanusha district, Balaram Mahato, contractor accused of financial crime, has announced to run for the post of mayor as an independent candidate.
Mahato and his company Raman Construction are currently under investigation for VAT bill forgery and tax evasion.
Nepal records 19 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday
Nepal reported 19 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 349 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 16 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 336 people underwent antigen tests, of which four were tested positive.
The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 49 infected people recovered from the disease.
As of today, there are 520 active cases in the country.
Death toll in Nigeria's Plateau state rises to 154 -community leaders
At least 154 people were killed in Sunday's attack by gunmen on villages in Nigeria's northern Plateau state, more than three times the initial count, two community leaders said, Reuters reported.
Armed gangs in northwestern Nigeria have terrorised villagers for years through kidnappings for ransom, but they have become more brutal, killing and pillaging communities where state security agents are rarely seen.
Ya'u Abubakar, a senior councillor of Garga rural district in the Kanem local government area of Plateau told Reuters that the gunmen arrived on motorbikes and started shooting sporadically.
Houses and shops were burnt to the ground and some people who tried to hide in nearby bushes were pursued and shot and their bodies were discovered on Tuesday, he said.
Abubakar said there were mass burials as shocked communities tried to come to grips with the violent attack, according to Reuters.
"All in all we have in our records (the number) of those killed at 154, including those found in bushes," Abubakar said by phone.
Such attacks are not common in Plateau.
But the state shares a border with Kaduna state, where suspected bandits - a loose term for gangs of outlaws carrying out robberies and kidnappings - blew up train tracks, killed eight people and kidnapped dozens last month.
Alhaji Wada, a Garga community leader said soldiers had been deployed to secure the area and were pursuing the gunmen.
"They should not be spared or forgiven," President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement late on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Telephone services are patchy in Nigeria's rural hinterlands, making it difficult for communities to call in help from security forces, whose resources are stretched due to an Islamist insurgency in the northeast of the country.



