‘Mild-mannered’ and ‘quiet’: Milwaukee neighbors describe Frank R. James, the man suspected of shooting 10 in Brooklyn subway attack

The neighbors of the man suspected of opening fire on a subway train in Brooklyn offered differing views of the alleged suspect, describing him as mild-mannered, courteous, grumpy and quiet.

Authorities arrested 62-year-old Frank R. James on Wednesday after an attack Tuesday morning on a subway train in Brooklyn left 10 people wounded by gunfire.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that James was taken into custody in Manhattan’s East Village. Investigators announced Tuesday afternoon they were searching for James. By Wednesday morning, New York authorities said he was a suspect in the shooting.

James has addresses in Wisconsin and Philadelphia, according to NPR. In a press conference after the arrest, authorities said he has ties to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York City and Ohio.

The city’s police chief said James bought the gun in Ohio. There was no mention of Wisconsin aside from saying he has connections to the state.

“We hope this arrest brings some solace to the victims and the people of the city of New York,” Keechant Sewell, the city’s police commissioner, said. “We used every resource at our disposal to gather and process significant evidence that directly links Mr. James to the shooting. We were able to shrink his world quickly, there was nowhere left for him to run.”

Eugene Yarborough, pastor of Mount Zion Wings of Glory church, which is located next door to James’ address on the 2600 block of North 6th Street, said James seemed courteous when the two interacted.

“I’ve seen him and spoke to him going by, but that’s it,” Yarborough said. “Just another man going about his business, doing what he do, and seemed to be mild-mannered to me. He always spoke when I spoke to him.”

Yarborough said it’s been more than a year since James moved to the neighborhood, and the pastor didn’t know what James did for a living. He wasn’t a member of the church and no parishioners were close with him, Yarborough said.

He couldn’t remember when he last saw James and noted there hasn’t been police activity in the area in the last few days. Police have not talked with Yarborough, he said.

“It’s sad, but it seems like this is the resolve that people go to now, for some reason or another,” Yarborough said of the shooting that took place in New York. “It’s like somebody put something in the water and everybody’s going bonkers.”

Wisconsin Public Radio reached out to the Milwaukee Police Department asking if it’s assisting authorities in the case. In an emailed statement, an MPD spokesperson wrote: “MPD is not currently involved and do not have any information regarding” the search for James and the mass shooting in Brooklyn.

A neighbor in Milwaukee told The New York Times on Tuesday that she had not seen James since late March. She said she lived in a unit adjacent to James, that he moved into the triplex in the last year and that he was “grumpy” and yelled on the phone.

A former neighbor from an apartment in Milwaukee told the newspaper James was quiet and “it was a surprise he would be connected with the shooting.”

North 6th Street was still Wednesday morning and early afternoon. The street with duplexes and a church had little foot traffic compared to the busy thoroughfares of Clarke Street and the interstate nearby. The biggest crowd was of reporters waiting outside the home James allegedly lived in.

Police believe James rented a van possibly connected to the violence. Authorities were examining social media videos in which the 62-year-old decried the United States as a racist place awash in violence and sometimes railed against New York City’s mayor.

“If he would’ve come to me, yes, I would’ve talked with him, I would’ve prayed with him,” the pastor, Yarborough, said. “But I don’t know what his issues were. We all have some issues. I don’t know what his were.”