New York police (United States) set off in pursuit of a man wearing a gas mask who caused chaos in the subway on Tuesday, April 12, by setting off two smoke devices before opening fire , leaving 23 injured, ten of whom were shot.
“We were really lucky that it wasn’t much more serious”, underlined the chief of the police of New York (NYPD), Keechant Sewell, summing up the relief of the authorities after this attack where the suspect – still at large 12 hours after the shooting – fired 33 bullets in the subway. This individual “opened two canisters which released smoke into the train. He then shot a number of passengers as the train entered the 36th Street station” south of Brooklyn,” Keechant Sewell said.
Amateur photos and videos showed pools of blood and people lying on the floor of a train, as well as on the station platform. Among the victims, none of whom were in mortal danger according to the police, ten were shot and thirteen others in the scramble to get out of the metro or because of smoke inhalation. The suspect was described by police as “a black man” measuring approximately 1.65 m, “heavyweight” and wearing a “green and orange construction vest” and a gray hoodie.
At the scene, the investigators found a handgun and three magazines, as well as a vehicle key which allowed them to go back to a van from the American rental company U-Haul, recently rented and abandoned in Brooklyn.
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The police gave the description and distributed photos of the individual who rented the van, without saying if it was the suspect. According to several media, this man, Frank James, 62, has published various videos on YouTube where he delivers long political tirades, sometimes virulent, and criticizes the mayor of New York, Eric Adams. “There have been posts that might be related to the person we are interested in, where he mentions homelessness, where he mentions New York, where he mentions Mayor Adams”confirmed the head of the NYPD.
Visiting Iowa, President Joe Biden promised: “We won’t let go until we find the perpetrator”. The attack came as New York has faced a spike in crime since the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of homicides has risen from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021 – well below, however, the more than 2,000 a year recorded in the early 1990s. Elected in November on security promises, the Democratic mayor and former policeman Eric Adams had launched a plan to fight against the proliferation of firearms in January, after the death of two police officers shot dead during an intervention.