In the frantic moments after a gunman opened fire on a Brooklyn subway car last year, New Yorkers pitched in to help the wounded passengers and give authorities information to identify the gunman, a newly released video of the incident shows.
The grisly, disjointed cell phone footage, unsealed by a federal judge a day after the suspect, Frank James, 63, pleaded guilty to terrorism and firearms charges, shows a smoke fill subway car filled with panicked and confused commuters, some of them badly wounded.
The attack on April 12th that left 10 people shot and others injured stunned the city and set off a 30-hour manhunt across the city.
WARNING: This video contains images that some may find disturbing.
In the recording, subway sounds can still be heard in the background as the chaotic scene unfolds – blood can be seen pooling on the floor and smeared on the orange plastic train seats as wounded passengers cry out in agony.
“Can someone help me get off?” a person screaming in agony asks. “I’ll help you,” another person answers.
The passengers seem still uncertain of what happened on the train.
“Was it gunshots?” another voice asks the crowd.
“Oh my god, that’s a lot of blood,” says the injured man.
“Stay low, stay low,” a voice says to him. “Stay low.”
Suspect Frank James is led by police after being arrested for his connection to the mass shooting at the 36th St subway station in Brooklyn.
John Nacion / Shutterstock
As commuters assisted fellow passengers onto the platform others leaned over and spoke to the wounded as they laid on the ground; some volunteered the little information that they knew about the attack.
“Orange — orange — he’s wearing orange,” a person says on the video, referring to James, who was caught on separate surveillance footage in a reflective orange vest.
James was arrested a day after the shooting after he called police from McDonald’s on Sixth Street and First Avenue and told them where he was.
Though James was gone by the time police arrived, three men working in the area spotted him a block away and called police.
James recorded himself in rants about the subway and New York City crime, but prosecutors have yet to pinpoint his motive for the attack.