New York City subway shooter Frank James sentenced to life in prison for rush hour attack that wounded 10 in 2022

Subway shooter Frank James was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years for opening fire in a Brooklyn subway train during the morning rush in 2022, an attack that wounded 10 passengers and incited widespread panic across New York City.

"He is a man whose actions on April 12, 2022 constituted nothing but pure evil," said U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II in handing down the punishment.

Kuntz sentenced James to life in prison for each of the 10 people he shot and an additional 10 years to run consecutive to the life sentences.

James, 64, a Bronx native who had lived in Philadelphia and the Midwest, pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges in the shooting earlier this year in federal court in Brooklyn.

In a Brooklyn courtroom Thursday, James apologized to the victims, calling the attack "cowardly acts" and saying he had "no reasonable explanation" during a 20-minute long statement. 

 "It was a cowardly act of senseless violence, my doing," he said, adding: "I, alone, am responsible for that attack." 

He said the attack was his attempt at "shining a light on certain things in the city" and attempted to describe disparities in how Black and poor people are provided services. 

James likened himself Jordan Neely, an apparently mentally ill man who died on a subway train in May after he was placed in a chokehold by West Islip native Daniel Penny, saying "people keep criminalizing people who need help." 

Multiple victims spoke before James was sentenced, describing not just physical injuries, but enduring mental health challenges that impede the way they live their lives to this day. 

One woman, identified only as "C.T.," said in a written statement read by prosecutors that she had overslept on 9/11, but was not as lucky on April 12. 

"I could feel bodies piled on top of one another," she wrote, describing "so much blood" in the train car. 

Fitim Gjeloshi, who was in the train car during the attack, cried in court as he described suffering from debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack.

“I don’t blame him … He just needs help,” said Gjeloshi, 21, of Bensonhurst.

James, who prosecutors said diligently planned the attack and dressed in a yellow hard hat and reflective vest that day so as to appear to be an MTA worker, positioned himself at the end of one car of a crowded N train and begin firing a Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine. James set off a smoke bomb to apparently add to the confusion and obscure his identity, prosecutors said. 

James created a “kill funnel” into which he could shoot at passengers at the other end and avoid the prospect that a nearby subway passenger would wrest the firearm away from him, prosecutors said.

James fired 32 bullets, with 16 hitting victims. Prosecutors have said five of the 10 who were wounded were hurt seriously enough that they might have died had first responders not gotten them to prompt medical care.

In a statement after the sentencing, Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, thanked the victims, who he called "resilient" and "the fabric of this city" for helping one another and assisting law enforcement. 

"The daily lifeblood of New York City is in its transit system — it’s found in the subway cars that are responsible for safely transporting New Yorkers every single day," said Peace. "Frank James attempted to take that sense of safety away and inject fear and chaos into the heart of this city. While he found temporary success in his plot, due to the resilience of New Yorkers and our relentless pursuit of justice, he ultimately failed."

James' defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg recommended James be sentenced to 18 years in prison, conceding Thursday that he had committed a "horrific, despicable, defenseless crime." 

Eisner-Grynberg detailed James' fractured home life as a child and the decades of struggle as a paranoid schizophrenic that followed. 

The government's sentencing request lacked a "fundamental understanding of mental illness," she said.

"It is barbaric," said she of the proposed sentence that was ultimately handed down. Eisner-Grynberg said James had COVID-19 and in August was treated for a gall bladder infection and pancreatitis, and the Bureau of Prisons is not equipped to handle his medical issues. 

"In so many ways, he is deeply unwell," she said of her client.

But prosecutors said James knew exactly what he was doing that day. 

James' level of planning, the terror inflicted and the need for deterrence warranted him receiving the maximum of 10 life terms, prosecutors have argued.

James felt aggrieved and wrote that the human population had to be reduced, according to prosecutors.

James fled the subway car and station, riding around on trains and changing his clothing for much of the time he was eluding law enforcement, before he was eventually captured on April 13 outside an East Village fast food restaurant.

He had called police to turn himself in and citizens, who had seen James’ surveillance photos widely displayed by the NYPD in the media, directed officials to the suspect.

James left behind his cellphone, bank cards in his name, a bag full of fireworks soaked in gasoline and a U-Haul key to a van he had rented the day before, prosecutors said.

Authorities also linked James to the crime through U-Haul records, surveillance cameras and cell site data, which confirmed that in the early hours of April 12, 2022, James drove his rented U-Haul van from Philadelphia to Brooklyn to carry out the attack, prosecutors said.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.