Brooklyn shooting update: Frank James ordered to be held behind bars in first federal court appearance

Dramatic video footage and witness accounts of New Yorkers carrying wounded commuters to safety have drawn comparisons to the heroic response to the September 11 terror attacks.

Immediately after the Brooklyn shooting, a video emerged online showing victims helping each other out of the smoking train and treating the wounded on the subway platform.

MTA CEO Janno Lieber likened the efforts to New Yorkers coming together after the Twin Towers were attacked by Al Quaeda terrorists in 2001.

Along with the search for the shooter, the police are trying to track down the renter of a van possibly connected to the subway shooting on Tuesday.

The keys to the U-Hall van were found on the subway in the shooter’s belongings that were left behind, the police said.

The van was later found abandoned on a street late Tuesday afternoon, near the Kings Highway station, where the police said the gunman had gotten on the subway.

Uber has announced that the cab aggregator has capped the pricing citywide and they will refund customers who experienced “unintended charges” during the shooting.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of this morning’s terrible shooting in Sunset Park. Uber has capped pricing citywide, and if anyone experienced unintended charges in the area during the emergency, we will work to refund them,” Uber Spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said.

The company was called out by several users on social media after the rush hour attack on Tuesday morning.

“Fare surge after a mass shooting in Brooklyn when subways are shut down. Shame on you @Uber,” one person tweeted along with a screenshot of the increased Uber prices.

The NYPD has increased the security of New York mayor Eric Adams after authorities looked through the social media posts of the man identified as a person of interest in Brooklyn shooting.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the posts “concerning”.

“We’re not calling them threats. He made some concerning posts, or someone made some concerning posts. We cannot attribute it to that individual yet; that’s under investigation,” Ms Sewell said from NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

“In an abundance of caution, we are tightening the mayor’s security detail.”

According to Daily Beast, one video warned Mr Adams against his proposal to combat gun violence and said it was “doomed to fail”. “Because I see some serious flaws in his plan,” said James, who identified himself as a native New Yorker.

Subway rider Fitim Gjeloshi, who said he came face to face with the shooter and saw him pulling out a gas mask, said he was mumbling and muttering 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,” Mr Gjeloshi told the New York Post.

He was on the Manhattan-bound N train just before 8:30 am with the shooter when the man started firing at people.

“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],” he said.

“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.”

Next what he saw was a guy right next to him saying ‘Help! Help’ and several others in the car with gun shot wounds.

New York mayor Eric Adams has had his security upgraded after disturbing videos emerged of a person of interest in Tuesday’s Brooklyn subway shooting ranting at him by name.

A YouTube account called “prophet oftruth88”, whose videos matched a screenshot shared by police, had repeatedly posted videos addressing Mr Adams and sometimes expressing violent thoughts.

“These are the people that were supposed to be helping me,” said Mr James, gesturing at photos on a projector screen behind him, in a video seen by The Independent. “They made me worse! They f***ing made me worse.

Read Io Dodds’ report

Frank R James, 62, who has been named person of interest in the Brooklyn subway shooting, made dozens of YouTube videos ranting at the New York mayor and blaming him for his breakdown.

“I f**king told you so,” Mr James said gesturing at photos on a projector screen behind him of news reports of various incidents of crimes in subways.

“That was just last night, Monday night...a whole bunch of s**t popped off over the weekend,” he said.

He then showed a clip of Eric Adams being questioned for crimes and homeless people.

Showing pictures of 12 unnamed person who Mr James refers to as “people that was supposed to be helping me” but said they are making him worse.

“These are the people that was supposed to be helping me,” Mr James said, pointing at the screen. “They made me worse! They f**king made me worse. They made me more dangerous than anybody could ever f**king imagine.”

He said he was a mental health patient at one of New York Behavioral Health clinics and said after that he was left with more issues.

“When I went there I was a nice person, I wanted to help people. When I left out there I wanted to kill everything in sight. I was planning to kill everything I saw, based on how I was treated by these bi**hes.”

A survivor of the New York City subway shooting has described his time inside the train on Tuesday morning, when he sat next to the shooter.

Hourari Benkada, who got shot in the leg, said the incident has left him wondering if he will ever be able to ride a train again, CNN reported.

“So the guy next to me ... all you see is like a black smoke bomb going off. People rushing to the back,” he said

“There was a pregnant woman. She said ‘I am pregnant with a baby’ so i hugged her,” he added. “The bomb rush continued and that’s when I got shot in the back end of my knee.”

Read Sravasti Dasgupta’s report

Hours after the bloody shooting, New York governor Kathy Hochul shared a picture taking a subway ride as the shooter remains on run.

She thanked Metropolitan Transit Authority workers for keeping New Yorkers moving.

From fatal shoves and faeces smearing to hammer attacks and mass shootings, transit crimes have surged by 46 per cent since last year as the city reopened, according to New York Police Department statistics.

About 224 more violent incidents have been reported in New York’s subways even as ridership remained 60 per cent, the same as it was before the pandemic hit in March 2020.

January marked the biggest spike, with crime doubling from the year before during the same period.