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A worker at a pizza place near where suspected Brooklyn subway shooter Frank James was found said the man came into his establishment in the early morning hours the day after after he wounded 29 people in a barrage of gunfire – and was apparently ‘crying like a little baby.’
Gentrid Hasangjekaj, 21, told the New York Post that James visited Stromboli’s Pizza at St. Marks’ Place at around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday while the manhunt was going on.
James, 62, was crying, according to Hasangjekaj, as he came in and was asking for help.
‘He was crying like a little baby,’ Hasangjekaj, who didn’t recognize James until he saw a photo he’d met him, said. ‘He says, ‘Oh, I lost my family,’ this and that, and I felt bad. I thought, ‘Whatever, let me help.’
Hasangjekaj said he tried to help the mystery man by giving him water and napkins at the time.
A worker at a pizza place near where suspected Brooklyn subway shooter Frank James was found said James came into his establishment in the early morning hours Wednesday after he wounded 29 people in a barrage of gunfire
Gentrid Hasangjekaj, 21, told the New York Post that James visited Stromboli’s Pizza at St. Marks’ Place at around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday while the manhunt was going on
‘I asked him three times, ‘Where you from? How long you been lost?’ He didn’t say nothing. It was like he wasn’t hearing what I was asking him.’
James didn’t order any food and left about a half hour after he arrived. Apparently, he told the men eating outside Stromboli’s that he was blind and asked to borrow a phone.
The worker said that before James entered the pizza joint, the suspect told four men eating slices outside that he was blind and asked if he could borrow one of their phones.
It’s unclear if any of the men handed over their phone to James, but the suspect soon entered Stromboli and asked Hasangjekaj for his phone, the employee said.
Hasangjekaj gave James his phone and called a number in Virginia Beach that was listed as having belonged to a man and woman, which is now disconnected. James said the woman was his wife.
He also tried to message the woman on Facebook, according to Hasangjekaj, but she at no point responded to him.
‘I’m talking to the guy who shot 10 people. I’m surprised. It’s, like, ‘Wow. It’s crazy,’ ‘ Hasangjekaj said.
James ominously told cops ‘I’ve been waiting for you’ before officers arrested the then at-large gunman on a Lower East side street Wednesday, it has been revealed.
The foreboding phrase, law enforcement sources told The Daily News Friday, was uttered by the 62-year-old suspect as officers responding to one of five tips as to his whereabouts approached James on St. Mark’s Place at approximately 1:42 pm.
When officers arrived on the scene, one lawman who spotted James walking down the crowded sidewalk called out ‘Hey, Frank!’ the newspaper reported.
At that point, James slowly turned around and stared at the group of officers, and offered the hair-raising remark.
James, who had evaded officers for nearly 30 hours before calling cops on himself roughly 12 minutes before his arrest at a First Avenue McDonald’s, was subsequently cuffed and detained, and is being held without bail.
The strange revelation was among several new details to emerge about the arrest Friday, as it was revealed the five tipsters who reported seeing James jaunt around Manhattan Wednesday will share Crime Stoppers’ promised $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture, each getting $10,000.
Suspected subway shooter Frank James ominously told cops ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ before officers arrested the then at-large suspect on a Lower East side street Wednesday, following multiple sightings of the suspect in Manhattan
James, 62, spent the night after allegedly shooting ten people on a packed northbound N train at a Manhattan hostel, before waking up to take what amounted to a tour of the borough while cops frantically searched for the suspect, then a person of interest in the case
Smartphones across the city lit up Wednesday as push alerts urged citizens to be on the lookout for James, who is accused of popping a smoke canister on a crowded N train as it approached 36th Street station in Brooklyn at 8:26 am Tuesday morning, before opening fire on those inside.
Tips soon began to flood in, leading detectives on a manhunt throughout the five boroughs – with one of the tips even coming from James himself – with at least four of the five credible sightings coming in Manhattan.
When James called the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline from the East 6th Street McDonald’s, he truthfully told dispatchers he was in the East Village, and even offered them a detailed description, describing what he was wearing and that he was carrying a green backpack, sources said.
An operator asked James for a number they could call him back on – to which he replied he didn’t know it, because the phone was new. He then said that his battery was about to die, and told the operator he would be charging the phone at the fast food eatery or somewhere close by, the source said.
Now on high alert, cops quickly mobilized to the area, but were still somehow unable to track down James, who had left the McDonald’s before officers arrived.
James was wearing Ugg-style slippers, black pants and a blue t-shirt when he was arrested on St. Mark’s Place Wednesday
Frank James is walked out of the 9th Precinct, Manhattan, New York. April 13 2022
James is transported into a police vehicle to be taken to a federal courthouse on Wednesday. He has been charged with carrying out a terror attack on mass transit
At 1:42 pm, however, cops were able to finally put James in bracelets, as the suspect walked casually along bustling St. Marks Place, a couple of blocks from the McDonald’s – thanks to Syrian-born security camera company worker Zack Tahhan, of Union City, New Jersey, who recognized the suspect and flagged down a passing police vehicle.
James – who had been charging his phone at a LinkNYC city internet kiosk when Tahhan spotted him – was then cuffed and walked to the local police precinct, where he was pictured by a flood of photographers and press.
When questioned as to why he called in the tip, 21-year-old Tahhan said: ‘If you smoke one cigar, you’re gonna want to smoke two cigars, you know? Like, this guy is gonna do it again if we don’t catch him, and we catch him. Thank God!’
Tahhan and two friends who also spotted James account for three of the five tipsters whose information led to James’ capture. The five citizens will split Crime Stoppers’ promised $50,000 reward.
‘I just wanted to make sure everybody was safe and that America is safe before I even think about the money,’ Tahhan told the News Friday. ‘There were other people with me too. They helped.’
Zach Tahhan, 21, was fixing a camera outside an East Village store when he spotted James in the street. The 62-year-old had just exited a McDonald’s and was walking around casually, a day after shooting ten people on a northbound N train
Tahhan told how he started yelling out that James was the shooter the moment he spotted him on Wednesday
Another Good Samaritan to call in a James sighting was a Twitter user going by the name Jack Griffin, who at roughly 10:30 am, spotted – and photographed – the suspect walking along Canal Street and dining outdoors at trendy Chinatown eatery Dimes.
Griffin shared two photos of the suspect to social media, with the caption, ‘possible frank James sighting.’
One of the photos posted by Griffin, at 10:29 am, showed a heavyset man matching James’ description walking down Canal Street still dressed in black, while another showed him sitting at Dimes’ outdoor dining area ‘just staring into space,’ Griffin told The News.
The post from Griffin prompted a response from the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers unit, who asked the Twitter to provide more details on the then-suspected sighting.
Another Good Samaritan to call in a James sighting was a Twitter user going by the name Jack Griffin, who at roughly 10:30 am, spotted – and photographed – the suspect walking along Canal Street (at left) and dining outdoors at trendy Chinatown eatery Dimes (at right)
In the 30 hours between the attack and his arrest, suspect Frank James (pictured Wednesday waltzing down Canal Street) was seen strolling around Manhattan, seemingly without a care in the world, as thousands of cops scoured the city in a frantic effort to track him down
At roughly 10:30 am, the suspect was spotted – and photographed – dining outdoors at Dimes on Canal St., by a passerby who shared the two photos of the suspect to social media. He is one of five tipsters splitting a promised $50,000 reward
Police have since confirmed that the man pictured in the photos was indeed James.
The fifth person has not yet been identified, as Crime Stoppers reward recipients are offered the right of anonymity.
James, who gave cops the slip by changing clothes following the brazen subway attack that saw a shooter fire off 33 shots, spent the night after the shooting at a Chelsea hostel steps away from a police precinct.
Immediately after fleeing the scene at the 36th Street subway station, James – who donned a orange construction worker-style vest, hardhat, and gasmask during the attack – reportedly boarded a southbound R train for one stop, exiting at 25th Street.
Source: Daily Mail
