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The person of interest in the investigation of Tuesday's mass shooting at an NYC subway station has ties to Philadelphia, officials revealed.
Police initially sent out a tweet identifying Frank R. James, 62, as a person of interest in the shooting. They later deleted that tweet and sent out a new one, calling James a "person of interest in the investigation."
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James has addresses in both Philadelphia and Wisconsin, officials said.
Police Chief of Detectives James Essig said investigators weren't sure whether James had any link to the subway attack.
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Authorities also were looking into social media posts by someone with the same name that mentioned homelessness, New York and Mayor Eric Adams, leading officials to tighten the mayor's security detail, Essig and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. She said the posts were “concerning.”
In a video posted on Mach 20, a man believed to be James can be heard saying, "I'm on my way to Philadelphia."
On Tuesday evening, police found a U-Haul van in Brooklyn that matched a description and license plate of the vehicle being sought in connection to the shooting.
Video shows a Philadelphia address and the words "Allegheny West" on the side of the van. A U-Haul storage company is located in Philadelphia’s Allegheny West neighborhood.
“Law enforcement has alerted us to its search for a rental van and its possible connection to a suspect in today’s incident in New York City," Sebastien Reyes, U-Haul Vice President of Communications, told NBC10. "We are working closely with authorities to ensure they have any and all available information to meet their needs.”
At least 10 Brooklyn subway riders were shot Tuesday by a man wearing a gas mask and a green construction vest who tossed a smoke canister in the train car to distract the rush hour crowd before opening fire, officials and law enforcement sources said.
More than a dozen others were hurt in the chaos that followed the shooting aboard the Manhattan-bound N train at the 36th Street and Fourth Avenue station in Sunset Park around 8:30 a.m. The gunman was still on the loose overnight into Wednesday.
Five of the gunshot victims were said to be critically injured. Details on the nature of their wounds weren't immediately clear. No fatalities have been reported.
Investigators believe the weapon jammed, preventing the suspect from continuing to fire, the officials said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has completed an urgent trace to identify the gun’s manufacturer, seller and initial owner.
Witnesses said the entire train car smelled of gasoline, and MTA sources described a similar smell too but the law enforcement officials said no gas cans were found.
The smoke canister, and harrowing video from the train, prompted early concerns about possible explosive devices connected to the case, but Commissioner Sewell assured New Yorkers in an early afternoon news conference that there are no known explosive devices on any subway trains in the city at this time.
Authorities found a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun at the scene, along with extended magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black garbage can, a rolling cart, gasoline and the key to a U-Haul van, Essig said.
He said the key led investigators to James, finding that he has addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin.
"Mr. James is just a person of interest, we know right now, who rented that U-Haul van in Philadelphia," Essig said. "The keys to that U-Haul van were found on the subway, in our shooter's possessions. We don't know right now if Mr. James has any connection to the subway."
The officials said authorities zeroed in on a person of interest after the credit card used to rent the van was found at the shooting scene.
The van was found, unoccupied, elsewhere in Brooklyn.
