NEW YORK — Newly released cell phone video reveals the horrific aftermath of last year’s mass shooting on a Brooklyn subway, showing wounded passengers crying in pain as smoke from the attack cleared out.
A federal judge ordered the video and several other pieces of evidence released Wednesday, a day after Frank James, the 63-year-old shooter, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.
“Oh, f—k I’m bleeding a lot! Oh my God that’s a lot of blood!” one man yells inside the crowded N train on April 12, as another says, “Stay low, stay low, stay low.”
The 13-minute video shows the moments after James set off a smoke bomb inside the train and fired 33 rounds. About a dozen bangs can be heard at the start of the video, though it’s unclear if they were gunshots.
Ten people were wounded by James’ bullets, but miraculously, none were killed.
The camera pans across the subway car as it pulls into the 36th St. station, showing wounded passengers, a pool of blood on the floor, and blood smeared on the subway car seats.
At about a minute into the footage, the man taking the video helps one of the injured straphangers out of the train and onto the platform.
“Does anyone know what that was?” a man’s voice asks, before the camera pans to two people writhing in agony on the platform. When an MTA employee asks what happens, he answers, “There was an explosion, bomb. Black smoke, popping sounds, at the end of the train, next to a construction worker with orange clothes on.”
James wore an orange reflective vest to disguise himself as a maintenance worker.
“Orange! Orange! He’s wearing orange!” the man says.
Within minutes, the subway platform is flooded with emergency personnel.
Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz also unsealed a video of James being held in a 9th Precinct stationhouse interrogation room after his arrest the next day. Kuntz released the footage after a request form NBC News.
At one point in the more than two-hour video, he urinated in his pants and informed detectives he’s had an accident.
Early in the interview, the detectives pressed James on whether he’s left anything behind — a gun, a bomb or a knife — that might still threaten public safety or be found by a child. He told them he was on the train, but didn’t know what they’re talking about, and admitted to owning guns, but said none of them are in New York.
“The guns I’ve had, and I’ve had guns ... all of those guns, those have been disposed of,” he said.
When a detective asked if he had any friends who might still be a threat, he said, “What friends do I have? I’m a loner. I live by myself. All I do is I drink, and I make YouTube videos. That’s all I do.”
In those videos, some of which he posted under the name “Prophet of Doom,” James rambles about violence, race wars, homeless people, mental health and Mayor Adams. “And so the message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting motherf---ers,” he said in one YouTube rant.
During his police interview, he tried to explain some of his philosophy.
“Violence is not an answer, it’s a result of something. It doesn’t solve anything,” he told the detectives. “That’s what happened on the train … senseless violence that didn’t solve anything.”
He went off on a tangent about the war in Iraq, and when the detectives tried to press him on the train shooting, he said, “I’m not gonna get into that with you. I have no idea about that. Until I speak with an attorney about the situation, I’m not gonna get into that.”
James said he surrendered to police because he knew he was a suspect.
“This is why I turned myself in, because I saw my face on the newspaper, I get my phone, I open up YouTube, there’s just video after video,” he said.
