NY City subway shooting suspect to plead guilty to terrorism charges

[December 22, 2022]  NEW YORK (Reuters) -Frank James, the man accused of a shooting attack on the New York City subway in April 2022, told a court through his public defenders on Wednesday that he intended to plead guilty to federal terrorism charges. 

Frank James, charged with last month's mass shooting in a Brooklyn subway, is sworn in before pleading not guilty to terrorism and weapons charges in a courtroom in New York City, New York, U.S., May 13, 2022 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

James has been charged in an attack on April 12 that injured 23 riders on a Manhattan-bound N-train as it passed through Brooklyn during the morning rush-hour. All the victims survived the highly unusual attack on the largest transit system in the United States.

This month, federal prosecutors filed new charges against James in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, including 10 counts of a terrorist attack and other violence against a mass transportation system.

Shortly before the attack, James was seen entering the subway system in Brooklyn, dressed in an orange reflective jacket and yellow hard hat. He let off a smoke canister in a crowded subway car before shooting about 33 bullets at passengers with a handgun as the crowded car entered a station, according to prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's office for New York's Eastern District.

He fled in the mayhem, prosecutors said.

Police arrested him in lower Manhattan about five miles away from the attack following a 30-hour manhunt.

Since receiving the letter from James' attorneys, Judge William Kuntz II has scheduled a change-of-plea hearing for Jan. 3. James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

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