BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) — Brooklyn subway shooter Frank James will be sentenced next Thursday for the attack he carried out on a train in Sunset Park in April 2022.
In January, James pleaded guilty to 10 counts of committing a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation vehicle.
James’ lawyers are asking that he receive an 18-year prison sentence. In a sentencing letter, his lawyers attributed his actions to severe mental illness and a rough upbringing, saying he’s “not evil.”
Federal prosecutors recommend that James receive 10 concurrent life sentences, citing “the careful and prolonged planning that went into the defendant’s mass shooting and the serious harm he inflicted on his victims and the community…”
James set off smoke bombs and shot 10 passengers on a northbound N train during the morning rush-hour commute on April 12.
The ten people who were shot all survived their injuries. More than a dozen other passengers suffered smoke inhalation and other injuries.
James fled during the chaos and wasn’t immediately apprehended. After a 30-hour manhunt, James was arrested in Manhattan the day following the attack.
James deliberately planned the subway shooting as early as 2017, purchasing items he could use in an attack, including smoke grenades, ammunition, weapons and a disguise, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A motive for the attack is unclear. In numerous rants he posted on YouTube, James, who is Black, made bigoted remarks about people of various backgrounds and railed against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and complained about mental health care he received in the city years ago.
