Five people who provided information in the manhunt for the accused New York City subway shooter will split the $50,000 reward money, officials announced Friday.
Frank James, 62, allegedly set off a smoke device and opened fire on an N train on Tuesday, wounding 10 people in the worst mass shooting on the city’s rail system in decades.
Police sources and James’ lawyer have said that James called Crime Stoppers himself with his location before he was arrested in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon after around a 29-hour manhunt.
But the NYPD said that five people gave information that “contributed directly to the arrest of Mr. James.”
“Thanks to the help of these five good Samaritans, the NYPD was able to do its job and get a dangerous suspect off the streets just hours after his picture was released,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
The five people were not identified. The $50,000 is to be split evenly among them, the city said. The reward was from contributions by the New York City Police Foundation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
The 10 people who were shot were all expected to survive. Around 20 people also suffered injuries, including from smoke inhalation, prosecutors said in court documents.
James has been charged federally with committing a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation system, which carries up to life in prison.
A motive, if one is known, has not been released. Police received many tips after the shooting and used them to construct a timeline of events, officials said.
Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said Wednesday that through the work of hundreds of detectives, as well as many other law enforcement officers, “we were able to shrink his world, quickly.”
Sources have said that even if James had not called Crime Stoppers, police were still confident he would have been apprehended soon with officers having flooded the nearby Lower East Side neighborhood earlier, based on another tip.
The shooting on the Manhattan-bound N train occurred almost 30 years after a man on a Long Island Rail Road train opened fire with a handgun, killing six people and wounding 19. The shooter in that 1993 incident was sentenced to 315 years in prison.
