Prosecutors say suspect in Brooklyn subway shooting stockpiled weapons in premeditated attack

Federal prosecutors said the suspect in the Brooklyn subway shooting stockpiled weapons in an “entirely premeditated” attack, which left at least 23 people injured on Tuesday.

Frank James, 62, was denied bail on Thursday and faces a federal charge of terrorism. Prosecutors say that on Tuesday morning during a rush-hour commute, James tossed smoke bombs into a Sunset Park subway and opened fire, injuring 10 with gunshot wounds and 13 others with smoke inhalation.

In court papers filed on Thursday, authorities said James amassed a stockpile of weapons at multiple locations before the shooting, including an empty magazine for a Glock handgun, a taser, a high-capacity rifle magazine, and a blue smoke canister in an apartment he had stayed in.

Police also recovered a propane tank in a U-Haul truck he had used. In a storage unit, they found ammunition for a 9 mm handgun, a threaded 9 mm pistol barrel for the attachment of a silencer or suppressor, and ammunition for a .223 caliber, which can be used for an AR-15 rifle.

“The defendant’s attack was entirely premeditated,” federal prosecutors wrote in court documents. “The defendant came to Brooklyn prepared with all of the weapons and tools he needed to carry out the mass attack.”

In addition to the weapons and items seized at those locations, police also found a Glock 17 pistol that James had purchased in Ohio, a gasoline container, a torch and fireworks with explosive powder at the subway station.

James traveled to New York from Pennsylvania in a U-Haul truck. He disguised himself with an orange reflective jacket, yellow hard hat and surgical mask before the shooting.

During the attack, prosecutors say James fired 33 rounds with the Glock “in cold blood at terrified passengers who had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.”

James has a lengthy criminal arrest record, including more than a dozen arrests over 30 years. In Youtube videos, James ranted about the New York subway system and homelessness in the city.

James was arrested on Wednesday after a 30-hour manhunt that included several agencies. He appears to have called the police on himself near a McDonald’s in Manhattan’s East Village, where he was later apprehended.