NEW YORK — Mass subway shooter Frank James admitted Tuesday he unleashed a wave of gunfire, smoke and horror on a Brooklyn train car in last year, wounding 10 people in a rush hour act of terrorism.
James, 63, could face up to life in prison for causing the chaotic ride on April 12.
“While I was on the train, I started shooting a firearm. My intention was to cause serious bodily injury to the people on the train,” James told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz. “And although it was not my attention to cause death, I was fully aware that a death or deaths could occur as a result of my discharging a firearm in such an enclosed space as a subway car.”
James put on a gas mask, set off a smoke bomb on a packed N train as it pulled into the 36th Street Station in Sunset Park, and opened fire 33 times as he told terrified passengers, “Start running.”
He was arrested the next day after an intense manhunt, and tried to claim he was just another rider on the train when officers and FBI agents questioned him.
James pleaded guilty to 10 counts of committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system, one for each gunshot victim, as well as a single count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Prosecutors also revealed some new details about the attack, including how he started preparing in 2017, when he bought a disguise, smoke bombs and ammunition. He also visited Brooklyn to do a trial run on the N train, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said.
James set off the smoke bomb to get passengers to run to the far end of the train car, where they’d be easier to shoot, and he “was aiming to kill the passengers by shooting at center mass,” Winik said.
Had they gone to trial, prosecutors would have made their case with victim testimony, DNA, ballistic and electronic evidence.
“The evidence would show that Mr. James intended to cause maximum damage at the height of rush hour,” Winik said.
James drove a U-Haul van over over the Verrazzano Bridge into Brooklyn around 4 a.m. the morning of the attack.
He lived inside the rented van for days, and he left behind a collection of online ramblings about race wars, Mayor Eric Adams, the mental health system and “homosexual predators.” In one video, he said he was diagnosed with a mental illness and treated in the Bronx in the 1970s.
James’ trial was set for Feb. 27. The judge pushed back on James’ lawyers’ attempts to delay it.
In November, James’ lawyers tried to have the trial moved out of Brooklyn on the grounds that he couldn’t get a fair jury in New York City, tried to suppress his statements to authorities after his arrest, and tried to have the charges tossed on the argument that federal terrorism laws apply to subway facilities but not subway cars themselves.
Kuntz denied those motions on Dec. 21, just after James’ lawyers informed the court that he intended to plead guilty.
James could face roughly 32 to 37 years behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines prosecutors said in a Monday filing, though they plan to ask for more time than that.
The maximum sentence James could face is life.
His lawyer disagreed with prosecutors’ read of the guidelines, contending that they should be calculated with the crime of aggravated assault in mind, not attempted murder. She argued that the federal guidelines call for 16 1/2 to 18 years behind bars.
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