Frank James’ sister reveals moment she realized he’s wanted for subway attack and says he must ‘answer for what he did’
THE sister of the suspect in the horrific Brooklyn subway shooting has described her fugitive sibling as a lifelong “loner” who needs to “answer for what he did.”
Catherine Robinson, 68, told The US Sun that she was stunned when she found out her brother, Frank Robert James, was being sought by police in connection with the mass shooting in Sunset Park on Tuesday morning.
“I was warning people that there was a shooting on the train and to be careful,” Catherine said during a phone interview.
“They saw the warning and then they said it was my brother. I was shocked.
“[The Police] said something like he left his card [at the scene]. But I haven’t spoken to him in about three years [because of] family stuff.”
James’ was initially named by police as a person of interest in the case on Tuesday evening, before being officially named as a suspect early Wednesday. He remains on the run.
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Police believe the 62-year-old, who has ties to Philadelphia and Wisconsin, opened fire on a packed Manhattan-bound N train on Tuesday morning as it approached 36th Street station.
The bloodbath left 10 people shot and more than a dozen others injured. Several of the victims suffered smoke inhalation after James allegedly detonated two smoke canisters amid the rampage.
None of the injuries were considered life-threatening. Authorities said a magazine jammed in the gun, which possibly prevented further casualties.
James was tied to the shooting after one of his credit cards was recovered from the scene along with a U-Haul key, police said. That card was used to hire a U-haul van that was also being sought in connection to the case and later found.
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The motive for the shooting remains unclear. Officials said the incident is not being investigated as an act of terror at this time, though refused to rule it out as a possibility in the future.
‘A LONER’
Shortly after James was named as a person of interest in the shocking case, a series of disturbing videos came to light in which he was apparently seen discussing violence and mass shootings.
In one clip, James says: “… I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my f**king face immediately.”
Catherine Robinson declined to specifically disclose why she hasn’t spoken to her brother for three years, but she described him as someone who has “always been by himself.”
“He’s a loner,” she said. “He’s not a bad person but I don’t know what happened.
“I hope he’s still alive and they can get him so he can answer for what he did, if he did it.”
Jame’s uploaded his unhinged rants and troubling clips to his YouTube channel, “prophet of the truth 88”, a platform where he appears to regularly make references to violence, and spew misogynistic and racist language.
The videos include commentary on major news events, such as Will Smith striking Chris Rock at the Oscars, as well as the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court.
However, in most of the clips James, who is black, appears to express disdain for black people, referring to them as “cattle” and calling them racial slurs.
“N*****s should be wiped off the planet, even though I am one,” James says in such clip.
MANHUNT INTENSIFIES
James has now been on the run for more than 24 hours.
Heavily armed cops wearing bulletproof vests were seen swooping on an apartment block in the Bronx on Wednesday morning, where one of the suspect’s family members is believed to live.
Three sets of law enforcement entered the same building over the course of two hours.
An emergency alert was also sent out to people in NYC on Wednesday, asking the public for their help to locate James.
The NYPD released new surveillance pictures of the suspect.
In one of the pictures, the suspect appears to be grinning as he emerges from an underground station.
James is described as about 5 feet 5 inches tall, heavily built, and was last seen fleeing the scene wearing a gas mask, an orange and green nylon construction vest, and a gray sweatshirt.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that as the train pulled into the station, the suspect put on a gas mask, pulled out a gas canister from his bag, and began shooting as the car filled with smoke.
“The train at that time began to fill with smoke, he then opened fire, striking multiple people on the subway and on the platform,” Sewell said.
A Glock 17, three Glock magazines, shell casings, bullets, two detonated smoke grenades, two undetonated ones, a hatchet and a U-Haul key were found at the scene, police said.
According to NBC News, the gun found at the scene has been traced to the suspect and was purchased at a pawn shop in Columbus, Ohio, in 2011.
Police say the keys found at the crime scene belong to a U-Haul truck that was rented by James in Philadelphia.
The van was found Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn; however, its connection to the case is currently unknown.
HARROWING ENCOUNTER
Victims and witnesses to Tuesday’s terrifying morning rush-hour shooting have recounted the horrors they witnessed when the masked gunman opened fire at around 8.30am yesterday.
Straphanger Fitim Gjeloshi, who was on board the N train, said he came face to face with the shooter and was targeted by the gunman.
After boarding the train, Gjeloshi said he noticed the suspect sitting in the corner, mumbling to himself.
“I looked at him, and I thought to myself he was talking to himself for like a while, so I looked at him, and I was like, this guy must be on drugs,” Gjeloshi told the Post.
When the train briefly stopped underground after leaving the 59th Street station, the suspect suddenly pulled out a gas mask and placed it over his face, Gjeloshi recalled.
“When [the train] was about to hit 36th Street, we stopped for 5 minutes. He takes out a gas mask from one of his little luggage[s],” the train rider told the Post.
“He opened one of his gas tanks, and he said, ‘Oops, my bad.’ He pulls out an ax, he drops it, he takes a gun out, he starts shooting.”
Gjeloshi claimed the gunman shot at him first but dodged the bullet and emerged unharmed.
“One guy gets shot right next to me. He says, ‘Help! Help!,’” the straphanger recalled.
“I tell some person to help him out, cover the blood for him. I jump over, I bang the door and I kicked it with my leg.
“I got lucky with it. … It was crazy, man,” Gjeloshi added.
NEAR MISS
A witness to the aftermath of the shooting, Konrad Aderer, told The US Sun he was warned away from the mayhem by a bloodied victim who had been shot in the legs.
Aderer had been making his way down a flight of steps inside the station when he saw a victim of the shooting hobbling towards him, calling out to MTA staff that there were people hurt and bleeding on the platform below.
“I saw this guy come up to the station booth, his pants were down and he was bleeding from both of his legs,” Aderer said.
“He was very animatedly telling the agent that there were people injured and bleeding on the platform. I thought I heard him say something about a shooting but I wasn’t totally sure at the time.”
Aderer said he felt incredibly concerned for the bleeding man. He considered hanging around to find out more and seeing if he could help out in any way, but ultimately he decided to “just get out.”
“Part of me wanted to find out what happened and help but it just didn’t seem wise,” Aderer said. “I have a family and I just would have been risking myself and not really helping [by being there].”
Arderer added that he believes he may have missed being on the platform during the shooting by just a matter of minutes.
Arderer, who lives in locally with his family, said he was ultimately held up by a series of “unusual” events, including an interaction with a crying woman who asked to borrow his phone after losing hers.
SUSPECT AT LARGE
While James continues to evade capture, law enforcement sources told ABC News that police now have probable cause to arrest him for the attempted murder of 10 people.
The determination was made overnight after an 18-hour investigation that including reviewing video footage, cellphone data, and interviews with numerous witnesses.
The US Marshals Service has joined the hunt for James, who is now considered a wanted fugitive. The FBI is also assisting the NYPD in their search.
A wanted poster released by police Wednesday morning described James as “armed and dangerous.”
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“At this time, we still do not know the suspect’s motivation,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said during a press conference on Tuesday evening.
“[But] Clearly this individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”
Anyone with information, videos or photos related to the shooting is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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