NYC mass subway shooter Frank James sentenced to 10 life sentences for rush-hour attack

NEW YORK — Frank James unleashed smoke, blood and horror in a subway car full of unsuspecting New Yorkers with 32 quick squeezes of a trigger — and for that act of terrorism, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

James, 64, who turned the N train into a hell ride on April 12, 2022, wounding 10 people in a morning rush-hour shooting, learned his fate Thursday, when Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz handed down his sentence.

Kuntz referred to the shooting as “raw evil,” and sentenced him to 10 concurrent life sentences, one for each shooting victim, plus 10 additional years on a gun charge.

“Whether or not one considers Mr. James evil … he is a man whose actions on April 12, 2022 constituted nothing but pure evil,” Kuntz said, after hearing from a string of victims on the train who described how the shooting plunged their lives into a perpetual nightmare of trauma and fear.

In a rambling, 20-minute statement to the judge, James quoted several authors and poets about slavery and race and talked about how the mental health system failed and abused him throughout his life.

He also compared himself to Jordan Neely, who was put in a fatal chokehold by former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny on a Manhattan subway in May. “I, like that young man, was a mental health consumer,” he said. “I didn’t scream out for help. I made the mistake of reaching out and asking for help.”

Kuntz acknowledged James’ mental health troubles, but said, “There are over 300 million people in America. There are over 300 millions guns in America. But there was only one man with one gun who got in that subway car on April 12, 2022. … The law will not tolerate that.”

James wore a mask, a yellow hard hat and orange reflective jacket to disguise himself as a worker, then used guile and a smoke grenade to create a “kill funnel” by herding commuters to one end of the crowded train car, federal prosecutors said.

As the N train rolled toward the 36th Street subway station, James started telling commuters the empty seats next to him were wet, then set off a smoke grenade — all to make sure no one was close enough to grab his gun, prosecutors said in court filings.

“I don’t know if you remember but we greeted each other that morning,” one victim, B.K., said. “You said, ‘There was urine on the seats, please move down the cars.’ I said, ‘OK, Thank you.’ … We were in a community together on that train car. That’s why I trusted you, even though you were a stranger.”

Another victim, C.T., said in a written statement read in court, “I looked him in the eye and I thanked him for this.”

He started shooting from a handgun with an extended magazine — 32 times total, until his weapon finally jammed. Sixteen of his bullets hit flesh, striking 10 people. Somehow, all survived.

B.K. said he fell to the ground, his lungs filling with smoke and pain searing through his knee from the crush of people falling on him. A pregnant woman repeatedly screamed and banged on a locked window, wailing for help.

“I saw a middle-aged man crawl. I saw a dark hole in his back,” B.K. said. “I realized we were all trapped. I realized we’re in here with you and there was nothing we could do.”

He felt despair, convinced he was going to die, thinking of all he hadn’t been able to accomplish, and how he wished he’d spent more time with his mother, family and friends.

When the train reached the station, and as the shell-shocked commuters ran and crawled out of the car, gasping and screaming, James ditched his disguise and hopped onto an R train across the platform.

He got off at 25th St., hopped on a Park Slope-bound bus, went into a deli, and grabbed a drink. He traveled the subway system all day, changing his appearance repeatedly, then headed to Newark for the night and back to the East Village. At one point, he ate lunch at Katz’s Deli.

As police frantically hunted for him, he watched 31 videos of news reports about the shooting on his phone and viewed the same chase scene from the James Bond movie “No Time to Die” 10 times, the feds said.

Finally, he called Crime Stoppers on April 13 to turn himself in the day after the shooting.

James pleaded guilty in January 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.

“The victims, not just those who were wounded physically, but also those who witnessed this horrific act, and others who put themselves at risk to help, will live with these traumatic events for the rest of their lives,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said after the sentencing.

James’ lawyers asked the judge for 18 years, calling him severely mentally ill but not evil, and describing a lifetime of untreated illness, trauma and hardship. They contended that due to his failing health, he would likely die before his release.

In a court filing last month, they said James “snapped,” and though he opened fire without caring who lived or died, he didn’t aim for people’s heads or shoot them point blank because he didn’t intend to kill anyone.

Prosecutors challenged that notion, describing the steps he took preparing for the attack dating back to at least 2019 — buying similar weapons, doing internet research on guns and taking test runs throughout the subway system.

They also pointed to his myriad rants on social media, including several videos posted on YouTube under the name “profitof_doom8888” and “prophet_oftruth88.”

He rambled online about race wars, Mayor Eric Adams, the mental health system and “homosexual predators.” In one video from about nine months before the attack, he said, “You have to put yourself in position that you’re not just ready, but you’re set to go, so that you get the maximum impact, maximum bang for your buck that you plan to do. And sometimes that takes time.”

One of the train passengers, L.C., challenged James’ notion that he couldn’t get help. He described himself as an alcoholic, and said surviving the shooting sent him into a spiral for several days, “the lowest moment of my life,” to deal with what happened.

“Do you understand the turmoil you have put this 51-year-old man through? I have to fight myself to get on the train,” he said. “You did something terribly evil. Your mother would have been ashamed of you. You could have found help. How hard did you actually look for it? I found help.”

B.K. said that images from the shooting make up his nightmares, and his fears have taken over his waking moments. “When I am in public spaces I cannot focus on anything except examining every person,” he said. “My anxieties have begun to overtake my personhood.”

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