YouTube Removes Account Tied to Brooklyn Subway Shooting Suspect

14 Apr 2022, 02:14 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- YouTube deleted the account that appears to belong to Frank R. James, the suspect arrested in the subway shooting in Brooklyn on Tuesday that injured two dozen people.

The NYPD had showcased screenshots of James that appeared to come from a YouTube video posted to a channel named prophetoftruth88. The account featured several videos of a man complaining about New York City’s mental health services and Mayor Eric Adams.

One video entitled “sensible violence” displayed a montage of news clips of crime in the city, and went on to attribute the cause of this crime to “ghetto culture” and “slave culture.” Another video, called “The good ole days” showed a finger in front of people on a crowded subway train.

Police have not confirmed the YouTube channel belonged to James, who allegedly detonated two smoke canisters as a Manhattan-bound N train was pulling into the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and then fired a handgun 33 times. James, 62, now faces a federal terrorism charge.

The channel was active on Wednesday morning before coming down. A note on the page says it was removed for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”

“Following the tragic event in New York City, our Trust and Safety team identified and terminated a YouTube channel associated with the suspect, in accordance with our creator responsibility guidelines,” said Jack Malon, a spokesperson for YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc.’s Google. “Additionally, our systems are prominently surfacing videos from authoritative sources in search and recommendations, including by surfacing our Top News shelf above related search results.”