NEW YORK (AP) – Police chased a gunman who opened fire on a Brooklyn subway train late Tuesday, leaving 10 people injured in a fire that once again disrupted New York’s long journey to normalcy after the pandemic.
The investigation focused in part on a man who police say rented a van possibly linked to the violence.
Investigators said they were not sure if the man, Frank R. James, was responsible for the shooting.  However, authorities were looking at videos on social media in which the 62-year-old denounced the United States as a racist party full of violence and sometimes criticized the city’s mayor, Eric Adams.
“This nation was born in violence, is kept alive by its violence or threat, and will die a violent death.  “There is nothing that can stop this,” James said in a video.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the positions “irrelevant” and officials tightened security for Adams.
The gunman fired smoke grenades at a crowded subway car and then fired at least 33 shots with a 9mm pistol, police said.  Five victims of the shootings were in critical condition but are expected to survive.  At least 12 people who survived the shootings were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries.
One passenger, Jordan Javier, thought the first sound he heard was a book falling.  Then another pop followed, people started moving towards the front of the car and realized there was smoke, he said.
When the train entered the station, people ran outside and headed for another train across from the platform.  Passengers were crying and praying as they walked away, Javier said.
“I’m just grateful to be alive,” he said.
The perpetrator fled into the chaos, leaving behind a gun, ammunition, an ax, detonated and unexploded ordnance, a black trash can, a rolling stock, petrol and the key to a U-Haul truck.
That key led investigators to James, who has offices in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, said Chief Detective James Essig.  The van was later found empty near a subway station where investigators found the gunman had entered the train system, Essig said.
The adventurous, blatant YouTube videos apparently posted by James, who is black, are full of violent language and fanatical comments, some against other blacks.
A video, released on April 11, criticizes the crime against blacks and says that drastic action is needed.
“You have kids who go here now and get machine guns and cut innocent people,” says James.  “It’s not going to improve until we improve,” he said, adding that he believed things would only change if certain people were “trampled, kicked and tortured” outside their “comfort zone.”
Several videos mention the New York subways.
A February 20 video says the mayor and governor’s plan to tackle homelessness and security in the metro system is “doomed to failure” and refers to himself as a “victim” of the city’s mental health programs.  A January 25 video criticizes Adams’ plan to end armed violence.
Adams, who is isolated after a positive test for COVID-19 on Sunday, said in a video statement that the city “will not allow New Yorkers to be intimidated, even by one person.”
Balsamo reported from Washington.  Associated Press writers Beatrice Dupuy, Karen Matthews, Julie Walker, Deepti Hajela, Michelle L. Price and David Porter in New York also contributed to this report, and Michael Kunzelman of College Park, Maryland.