‘Prophet of Doom': Subway suspect left ranting video clues

NEW YORK — Frank James posted dozens of videos ranting about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness. “This nation was born in violence, it’s kept alive by violence or the threat thereof, and it’s going to die a violent death,” says James in a video where he takes on the moniker “Prophet of Doom.” After a 30-hour manhunt, James was arrested without incident after a tipster — thought by police to be James himself — said he could be found near a McDonald’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. A federal criminal complaint cited one in which James ranted about too many homeless people on the subway and put the blame on New York City’s mayor. It was so bad, I couldn’t even stand.” James then railed about the treatment of Black people in an April 6 video cited in the complaint, saying, “And so the message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting.” In a video posted a day before the attack, James criticizes crime against Black people and says things would only change if certain people were “stomped, kicked and tortured” out of their “comfort zone.” Surveillance cameras spotted James entering the subway system turnstiles Tuesday morning, dressed as a maintenance or construction worker in a yellow hard hat and orange working jacket with reflective tape. Mayor, let me say to you I’m a victim of your mental health program in New York City,” James says in a video earlier this year, adding he is “full of hate, full anger and bitterness.” James says he later was a patient at Bridgeway House, a mental health facility in New Jersey, although that could not be immediately confirmed.