The man who committed a mass shooting on New York City’s subway last April pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court, according to prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said that Frank James, 63, pleaded guilty to 11 counts related to the attack. Most of the charges stemmed from the 10 riders he injured when he fired more than 30 rounds into a crowded subway car in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park after setting off a smoke grenade.
“Frank James, as he admitted today, deliberately planned and carried out an attack of terror on everyday New Yorkers,” lead FBI investigator Michael Driscoll said in the Tuesday statement.
Prosecutors said that the attack, carried out during the morning rush hour, was the result of an elaborate plan that the defendant began formulating as early as 2017.
He bought weapons, ammunition, smoke grenades and clothes that made him look like a subway employee. He also conducted multiple internet searches in the months before his attack.
James had his own since-removed YouTube channel where he expressed extremist views, such as discussing a “race war” and the need to “exterminate” certain groups of people, according to NBC News.
“This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof, and it’s going to die a violent death,” James said in a video where he refers to himself as the moniker “Prophet of Doom,” according to local affiliate WNBC.
The attack shocked the city and set off a 30-hour manhunt throughout New York City before James was finally apprehended in Lower Manhattan.
A sentencing date has yet to be announced. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of up to 37 years.
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