The man allegedly behind April's bloody subway rampage in Brooklyn received a superseding indictment on Friday charging the 62-year-old man with 10 additional counts, one for each of the gunshot victims, prosecutors said.
Frank James is accused of setting off smoke bombs and firing 33 rounds on a Manhattan-bound N train. The accused gunman was arrested on April 13, about 30 hours after authorities said he drove from Philadelphia and unleashed terror on a train full of morning commuters as it approached a station in Sunset Park.
The Eastern District of New York said a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging the man with 10 counts of a terrorist attack and other violence against a mass transportation system. Each count carries the possibility of life in prison, a spokesperson for the office said.
The shooting victims ranged in age from 16 to 60; all survived.
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James pleaded not guilty in May to federal charges of committing a terrorist attack on mass transit and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg had cautioned at at the time of James' arrest not to rush to judgment and noted that James alerted police to his whereabouts. He was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village after he called a tip line saying he was at a fast food restaurant in that section of the city.
A motive for the attack is unclear. In numerous rants he posted on YouTube and social media, James, who is Black, made bigoted remarks about people of various backgrounds and railed against New York Mayor Eric Adams and complained about mental health care he received in the city years ago.
In one of the videos posted online, James talked about upcoming travel to New York City, saying that "it's going to be very interesting what happens in New York with me," according to court documents. He also allegedly reference "dying time" and said that "the whole system is coming down," just like on Sept. 11 after the terror attacks at the World Trade Center.
James also stated in videos that he had "nothing to lose" because of his age and made reference to a plan with "a lot of moving parts." Court papers state that he wanted to make sure those plans "don't fizzle out or...don't miss deploy." In one audio recording from a cellphone, James allegedly called "for the end of humanity and state that he was full of hate, anger and bitterness," prosecutors said in the filing.
James's federal trial was previously set to begin February 27.
