Fitim Gjeloshi: Subway rider recalls CHILLING encounter with 'mumbling' Brooklyn gunman
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY: A Brooklyn subway rider has recalled coming face to face with the gunman who opened fire aboard a subway train in Brooklyn on Tuesday, April 12, shooting 10 people. Eleven other people were also injured while trying to get away from the train, the New York Fire Department said. A man wearing a gas mask threw two smoke canisters and also opened fire aboard a subway car on the N train while it was approaching the 36th Street Station in Brooklyn in the morning.
Recalling the attack, subway rider Fitim Gjeloshi told the New York Post that he was on the Manhattan-bound N train just before 8.30 am in Brooklyn when he saw the suspect mumbling to himself, sitting in a corner. “I looked at him, and I thought to myself he was talking to himself for like awhile, so I looked at him, and I was like, this guy must be on drugs,” Gjeloshi said. He recalled out the suspect suddenly brought out a gas mask when the train halted underground after leaving the 59th Street station.
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“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],” Gjeloshi 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.” He said that the suspect shot at him first but he managed to escape unhurt. “One guy gets shot right next to me. He says, ‘Help! Help’ ” Gjeloshi said. “I tell some person to help him out, cover the blood for him. I jump over, I bang the door and I kicked it with my leg,” Gjeloshi said.
Frank R James, 62, has now been named a 'person of interest' in the shooting. At a news conference on April 12, New York Police Chief of Detectives James W. Essig said that the keys of a U-Haul van that James rented were found at the scene of the shooting in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. "We are looking for Frank James," he said. "We know he rented that U-Haul van."
James has addresses in Wisconsin and Philadelphia. He has not been named a suspect yet. The van was rented in Philadelphia, and police want to know if he witnessed the attack, Essig said. James had allegedly railed against Mayor Adams and made threatening rants on social media earlier.
Authorities said that the shooter set off two smoke canisters and opened fire with a Glock 9 mm handgun. He reportedly shot 33 rounds that struck the 10 victims of gunshots. New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell confirmed at the news conference that investigators have found in the subway station a gun with a magazine attached, two additional magazines, ammunition, a hatchet, and a container of what is possibly gasoline. Any possible motive remains undetermined.
Following the attack, police had said that they were on the lookout for a man believed to be about 5-foot-5 and 180 pounds. He is believed to have been wearing a green construction vest during the attack. “This person is dangerous,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a news conference.
The attack is reportedly not considered an act of terrorism. None of the people who were wounded suffered life-threatening injuries. Mayor Adams, however, believes that the shooter intended to bring terror to subway riders. "Any time you have a person that uses a smoke device, you have a person who discharges a weapon in the system, that appeared to place a gas mask on his face, that is a person that is intentionally trying terrorize our system," Adams told MSNBC. "What we're going to do to help ... [to] ease some of the apprehension. We're going to double our enforcement," he added. "We're keeping our day tour police officers to complement the 4-to-12-tour police officers." The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have joined in the investigation. As a precaution, the security detail for Mayor Eric Adams was being beefed up.