At approximately 8:24 a.m. EDT, a 62-year-old Frank Robert James[2] put on a gas mask, threw two smoke grenades, and fired a handgun 33 times.

Although no one died, 29 people were injured; ten victims were hit by direct gunfire, while the remaining injuries were from smoke inhalation.

[7] At 6:15 a.m. EDT on April 12, 2022, video surveillance captured footage of a man matching James' description, who left a U-Haul van two blocks from a train station on the same subway line where the attack took place.

[18] Footage of the evacuation from the subway train was filmed by a passenger in an adjacent car and quickly published on social media and news sites.

The footage depicted the chaos of the evacuation with many people helping injured passengers, shouting about details of the shooting, and requesting emergency services.

[15][14] At a morning press conference on the day of the attack, the FDNY said there were 16 people injured, 10 of them with gunshot wounds, 5 of whom were then in critical but stable condition.

[23] Recovered from the train at the scene were several items, including a Glock 9-millimeter handgun, three ammunition magazines, a credit card in the name of Frank R. James, and a key to a U-Haul van.

[25] During the afternoon of April 13, the day after the attack, a surveillance video showed James entering the subway at the Kings Highway station on the Sea Beach Line, served by the N train.

[27] He posted antisemitic diatribes,[35][36] expressed grievances at persons he believed had wronged him, made violent threats,[33] and invoked mass shootings.

[31] James' beliefs have been linked to Black supremacy[37][38] and he has been outspoken in his criticisms toward mayor Eric Adams[39][40] and New York City's mental health services in several YouTube videos.

"[33] James characterized the situation of African-Americans as an "American Auschwitz", and said that "the seed is already planted for a Nazi Party to rise in this country again and I believe it will.

"[40] The suspect—who was described as a heavy-built black male, 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and 175 to 180 pounds (79 to 82 kg), wearing a gas mask, MTA uniform, a gray hooded sweatshirt, a green vest and a backpack—fled the scene through another subway train and was not immediately apprehended.

[9][10][21][44] According to charging documents in federal court, surveillance footage showed James exiting the subway system at the 25th Street station, one stop away from the shooting.

[48] A jacket discarded by James on the 36th Street station platform had a receipt from a storage facility in Philadelphia in it, where he rented an apartment in the weeks before the attack.

[45] Searches of the storage facility and apartment found handgun ammunition, a taser, a high-capacity magazine for rifles, and a smoke canister.

[47][52] The day after the attack, James called the tipline, said he knew he was wanted and that he was at a McDonald's at Sixth Street and First Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.

[45] James was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York with committing a terrorist act on a mass transit system, potentially facing a maximum of life in prison.