A 63-year-old man has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges after wounding 10 people during a shooting on New York’s subway. Frank James, from Milwaukee in Wisconsin, fired more than 30 shots and set off a smoke device during the incident on a crowded N train travelling towards Brooklyn’s 36th Street Station last April.
He admitted his intention was to “cause serious bodily injury to the people on the train”.
James, who initially pleaded not guilty to the charges in May, admitted to 10 counts of committing a terrorist attack and other violence against a mass transportation system and vehicle carrying passengers and employees.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
A total of 29 people were hospitalised due to the incident, including 10 people wounded by gunfire.
JUST IN: Idaho murder suspect in court as major US extradition hearing underway
James said: “While it was not my intention to cause death, I was aware that a death or deaths could occur as a result of my discharging a firearm in such an enclosed space as a subway car.”
The 63-year-old’s attorney also claimed in a statement after the hearing that his client accepted responsibility for the shooting “since he turned himself in to law enforcement”.
James was arrested just one day after the incident in Manhattan’s Lower East Side after calling in a tip on himself.
Attorneys Mia Eisner-Grynberg and Amanda David added: “A just sentence in this case will carefully balance the harm he caused with his age, his health, and the Bureau of Prisons’ notoriously inadequate medical care.”
READ MORE: Teenagers killed after ‘being crashed into by police officer in high-speed pursuit’
In a statement, Peace also claimed James’ guilty plea was an “important step toward holding James fully accountable and helping the victims of the defendant’s violence and our great city heal.”
James previously posted videos on a YouTube channel in which he discussed violence and mass shootings.
A screenshot from one of the videos was used on a New York Police Department Crime Stoppers flyer seeking information about the shooting.
