A spectre is
haunting New York, the spectre of subway violence. Tuesday’s shooting on a
Brooklyn subway train has made many of New Yorkers’ worst-fears come true. At
least 23 people were injured, of them 10 by gunfire, after a man wearing a gas
mask fired 33 times; the gunman is still at large.

It was the typical
Tuesday morning New York rush. The express N train was between the 59th
Street and 36th Street in the Sunset Park neighbourhood, when the
gunman, wearing a construction vest and a gas mask, opened fire.

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Chis Focco, who
was on an R train to Manhattan, told The New York Times that he noticed smoke
coming out of the train as the N train arrived at the station and the doors
opened.

“I was supposed to
get off to go across the platform to get on my next train, but I couldn’t get
through because hordes of people were crying, hysterical and panicked,” he
said.

Sam Carmano, who
was on the N train and spoke to 1010 WINS radio station, said: “My subway door
opened into, just like calamity, and then it was people, just running to get
away from whatever was happening, and then it was smoke and blood and people
screaming.”

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The gunman escaped
the scene of crime and as police arrived, they shut down the locale. The
transportation authority suspended service for the N, R and D trains in the
area.

As the hunt for
the gunman began, it was discovered that a security camera that could have
captured images of the crime, was not in operation, a law enforcement official
told NYT.

Passengers on the
N train were taken to the next stop on the 25th Street as cops
barricaded stations from the 36th to the 25th.

As things stand,
police have identified a ‘person of interest’ – Frank R James. James was
driving a U-Haul van that was found miles away from where the shooting took
place. The keys to the van were found on the train, as were found: a 9-mm handgun,
ammunition, a hatchet, fireworks, and a liquid believed to be gasoline. Cops
have not called him a suspect.

What we know of
James so far is that he has two addresses, one in Philadelphia and another in
Wisconsin. One of his neighbours, a Keilah Miller, described him as a gruff man,
and a “weird neighbour”.

Frank R James has
posted several videos on YouTube where he is seen criticising New York mayor
Eric Adams’ subway safety policies. A day before the shooting, he posted a
video where he said he wanted to kill people and “to watch people die.”