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

The YouTube account belonging to Brooklyn subway shooting suspect Frank Robert James has been taken down for “violating community guidelines”.

Mr James had posted a series of rambling videos on YouTube under the name “prophet of truth 88”, including rants about New York City Mayor Eric Adams, mass shootings and homeless people on the subway system.

The page was still live early on Wednesday morning before being taken down.

“This account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines,” read a notice on the YouTube channel.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that no weapons or explosives had been found inside the U-Haul van believed to have been rented by shooting suspect Frank Robert James.

The van was found in Gravesend, Brooklyn, around a five minutes’ walk from the Kings Highway subway station on Tuesday afternoon, following a sighting from a member of the public.

Police were searching for the van after finding keys to the vehicle inside a bag left at the scene of the shooting, along with a handgun, high capacity magazines, fireworks and gas canisters.

While no further weapons were found inside the vehicle, the law enforcement sources said the vehicle did contain remnants of food and that Mr James appeared to have been sleeping in it.

The sister of the man suspected of carrying out the Brooklyn subway shooting has broken her silence to say she was “surprised” to learn of her brother’s possible involvement.

Catherine James Robinson told The New York Times that she didn’t think her brother Frank Robert James was capable of shooting 10 people and wounding several others in Tuesday’s horror attack.

“I don’t think he would do anything like that,” she said.

“That’s not in his nature to do anything like that.”

Ms Robinson said that her brother had “been on his own his whole life”, moving from city to city, and that she had barely been in contact with him for many years.

She said that the siblings had not seen each in person for a long time and had spoken only rarely on the phone - the last time being several years ago when their younger sister Barbara Jean Grey died.

Mr James, a 62-year-old Bronx native, did not struggle with his mental health but “there was a lot that went on through our lives”, she insisted.

During a series of rambling YouTube videos posted online by Mr James, he said he had been a patient of New York’s mental health system.

In one video, he claimed that the experience made him want to “go and get a gun and shoot motherf***ers”.

“I have been in crisis, as a patient. I have a diagnosis that goes back to 1980, and I have been in crisis... what’s going on in these places is violence,” he said.

“Not physical violence, but the same kind of violence that’s similar to what a child may experience in grade school.”

The NYPD will hold a press conference at 2pm to update the public about its investigation into Tuesday’s subway shooting and the ongoing manhunt for suspect Frank Robert James.

Check back here to watch live.

New surveillance footage shows a man believed to be suspected gunman Frank Robert James entering a subway station at around 6.15am on Tuesday morning - two hours before the mass shooting unfolded.

The video, obtained by News 4, shows a man in an orange construction jacket and yellow hard hat carrying a backpack and wheeling a rolling suitcase inside the N station at Kings Highway.

The man is seen swiping a MetroCard at the turnstile to enter the station.

Footage from a different angle shows the same individual using an emergency exit to get inside after the card appeared to not work.

The suspect is believed to have entered the subway system at Kings Highway before travelling to 36 Street where he carried out the attack.

The U-Haul van police said was rented by Mr James was found just a five minutes’ walk from the Kings Highway station.

Frank Robert James once posted a video from a packed subway on his now-shuttered YouTube channel almost two years before allegedly carrying out the attack on a commuter train in Sunset Park.

The 47-second video, from August 2020, shows passengers riding the New York City as he points his finger at different people who are unaware they are being singled out.

The footage is captioned “The good ole days” and is just one of dozens of videos posted on his “prophet of truth 88” YouTube channel, including rants about New York City Mayor Eric Adams, mass shootings and New York’s mental health system.

Suspected gunman Frank Robert James may have carried on riding New York City’s subway for several hours after allegedly carrying out the rush hour attack, according to law enforcement sources.

Sources told NBC New York that a MetroCard paid for with a credit card linked to Mr James had been swiped at a subway station in Brooklyn on Tuesday night.

It is not clear which station or which part of Brooklyn the MetroCard was used in but this revelation will do little to calm concerned New Yorkers who returned to their daily commutes on Wednesday despite Mr James still being on the run.

However, while this indicates Mr James was still using the subway system hours after the Tuesday morning mass shooting, because the MetroCard system does not log travel in real time this cannot be confirmed at this time.

Brooklyn shooting suspect Frank Robert James has been arrested in the East Village area of Manhattan.

The suspect was taken into custody by patrol officers from the 9th Precinct downtown on Wednesday after being on the run for more than 24 hours.

Frank James was involved in “some kind of stabbing” before being taken into custody on Wednesday, according to MSNBC.

The outlet reported that he was arrested at St. Marks Place and 1st Avenue in the East Village area of Manhattan.

A tip-off from the public led to the arrest of Brooklyn shooting suspect Frank Robert James, law enforcement sources told NBC New York.

The sources said that a member of the public called Crime Stoppers after spotting him walking through the East Village.

The 62-year-old is now in police custody and is being questioned at the 9th Precinct.