(CNN)The man arrested after a roughly 30-hour manhunt in the shooting of 10 people on a subway train in Brooklyn was denied bail at his initial court appearance Thursday, authorities said.
Frank James, 62, did not enter a plea on charges of violating a law that prohibits terrorist and violent attacks against mass transportation.
"In this case the defendant terrifyingly opened fire upon passengers on a crowded subway," prosecutor Sara Winik said, adding that the attack was "premeditated and carefully planned."
Defense attorneys told the federal judge they consented to James remaining in custody for now but may press again for bail later.
The lawyers further asked for a psychiatric evaluation to determine James' medical needs, as well as magnesium pills to treat the defendants' leg cramps.
Wearing a khaki prison uniform and blue surgical mask, James spoke only once, to acknowledge he had seen the complaint.
"The defendant committed a premeditated mass shooting on the New York City subway system and then fled the scene, with a stockpile of ammunition and other dangerous items stowed in his storage unit. The defendant presents a severe and ongoing danger to the community, as well as a serious risk of flight, that no set of release conditions can mitigate," Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, wrote in a letter to the judge before the hearing.
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Photos: Brooklyn subway shooting
Law enforcement officials lead subway shooting suspect Frank James away from a police station in New York on Wednesday, April 13. James was arrested Wednesday and charged with a federal offense.
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Photos: Brooklyn subway shooting
Police and emergency responders gather outside the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday, April 12.
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Injured people are seen on the platform of the 36th Street subway station on Tuesday. This photo was taken by photojournalist Derek French, who told CNN he leveraged his Red Cross first aid training to help victims. While helping them, French also discovered that he himself had been shot in the ankle and was bleeding. Editor's note: A blur has been applied here by CNN to protect the identity of the victim.
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Photos: Brooklyn subway shooting
Emergency personnel work at the entrance to the subway station.
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A New York City police officer checks security cameras near the scene.
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Emergency personnel respond to the scene.
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People look out of a home near the scene of the shooting.
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Photos: Brooklyn subway shooting
The mass shooting comes amid a rise in shootings in New York over the past two years and a particular rise in violence on the subway that has become a focus of Mayor Eric Adams' administration.
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Injured people are seen in the subway station on Tuesday. Editor's note: A blur has been applied by CNN to the faces of the victims to protect their identities.
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Photos: Brooklyn subway shooting
Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood is located in the southwest part of the borough.
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New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell speaks about the shooting at a news conference on Tuesday. "We are determining what the motive is, and we will find that out as the investigation continues," she said.
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A police officer ducks under police tape at the scene.
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New York City police officers look down from a rooftop.
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People stand near the entrance of the subway station after the shooting.
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Members of the New York City Police Department patrol the streets after the incident.
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Officers with bomb-sniffing dogs patrol the area.
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Police officers work near the scene of the shooting.
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Emergency responders gather at the site of the shooting.
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Mia Eisner-Grynberg, an attorney for James, did not answer reporters' questions outside the Brooklyn federal court but did caution against a rush to judgment.
"We are all still learning about what happened on that train," she said. "What we do know is this: Yesterday, Mr. James saw his photograph on the news. He called Crime Stoppers to help. He told them where he was. Initial press and police reports in cases like this one are often inaccurate. Mr. James is entitled to a fair trial, and we will ensure that he receives one."
James' appearance came two days after authorities say he boarded an N subway train, set off two smoke grenades and then opened fire at commuters during Tuesday morning rush hour in one of the most violent attacks in the history of New York's subway system.
Officials have not released a motive for the attack.
The shooting, which came as the train neared the 36th Street station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, left at least 29 people with injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to smoke inhalation. Five remained hospitalized Wednesday evening.
James was initially named a "person of interest" by the New York City Police Department but was declared a suspect after investigators determined he purchased the gun left at the scene of the shooting. Police released photos of him and launched a manhunt, which ended early Wednesday afternoon when officers took him into custody without incident on Manhattan's East Village.
"We were able to shrink his world quickly. There was nowhere left for him to run," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said Wednesday.
Shortly before his arrest, James called the police tips hotline Crime Stoppers to turn himself in, two law enforcement sources told CNN. Others saw James in the street and flagged nearby police officers to his presence.
A witness who alerted police told CNN on Thursday morning that he recognized James from the police photos.
"When I saw his face, I recognized him like right away, but at the same time I feel kind of panic because he was carrying a backpack on his right-hand side, it was like heavy," Francisco Puebla said. "When he passed by right next to us, he was just talking bad words, talking himself, and just continued walking right on the street."
Puebla, who was outside the hardware store he works at installing cameras, then alerted police officers stopped at a red light.
"I took some action, and I went right, straight up to the police car and I tell the police officer that I just saw the man that, the one who did the shooting in Brooklyn," Puebla said.
33 shots and no deaths
See aftermath of shooting inside NYC subway station 01:23
The shooting began on a Manhattan-bound N subway train after it left the 59th Street station heading toward the 36th Street station in Brooklyn just before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The suspect, a heavyset Black man wearing an orange reflective jacket, yellow hard hat and surgical mask, set off at least one smoke device in the train car and then began shooting at people with a Glock pistol, according to a criminal complaint. Witnesses also said the suspect was wearing a gas mask, the complaint states.
The gunman fired at least 33 times and struck 10 people, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
Officials have said none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
Hourari Benkada, 27, who was shot in the back of the knee, said he'd gotten into the last car of the N train and sat next to a man with a duffel bag who appeared to be wearing an MTA public transit vest. The man let off a "smoke bomb," he said, and passengers tried to flee as the man then began firing.
The engulfing smoke created panic and chaos as passengers fled to the far end of the train, waiting for two long minutes until the train arrived at the next station.
When it did finally make it to the 36th Street station, passengers bolted from the train car and smoke spilled out of the open doors, videos of the scene show. Others with bloody wounds stumbled to the platform and cried out for medical care.
Gun, U-Haul key and bank cards tied to James, complaint states
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How police found and arrested NYC subway shooting suspect 01:33
Evidence found by investigators led police to pinpoint James as the shooter, according to police and the complaint.
Authorities at the scene found a bag containing a Glock handgun, a plastic container containing gasoline, a torch, a U-Haul key and multiple bank cards, as well as another bag containing fireworks, the complaint states.
The handgun was purchased by James in Ohio in 2011, the bank cards had James' name on them and the U-Haul key was connected to a van that James had rented a day earlier in Philadelphia, according to the complaint.
Authorities also tracked the purchase of a gas mask to James through an eBay account, two officials said.
In addition, a neon construction jacket, which had been discarded on the subway platform, had a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia registered to James, the complaint states.
Federal prosecutors believe he visited the storage facility filled with ammunition and more weapons the evening before the attack, according to court documents. A search of the storage facility revealed additional ammunition and "a threaded 9mm pistol barrel that allows for a silencer or suppressor to be attached."
According to the complaint, law enforcement also executed a search warrant at a Philadelphia apartment authorities believe James rented for 15 days beginning around March 28 and found "an empty magazine for a Glock handgun, a taser, a high-capacity rifle magazine and a blue smoke canister."
The U-Haul van was recovered by police near the Kings Highway subway station that services the N line. Surveillance video from hours before the shooting showed an individual -- wearing a yellow hard hat, orange working jacket and carrying a backpack and rolling bag -- leaving the U-Haul van, the complaint states.
Surveillance video also showed some of James' movements after the shooting. After allegedly opening fire on the train, James got off at the 36th Street station, boarded an R train across the platform and got off at the 25th Street station stop, the complaint states.
Less than an hour later, he was spotted boarding the subway at the 7th Avenue and 9th Street station, about 1.5 miles away, Essig, the NYPD official, said.
What we know about James
James worked for Amazon for a period of six months, which ended about a year ago, the company confirmed Thursday. Asked whether James was terminated or left the job on his own volition, Amazon said it didn't have further information to share at this time.
James has nine prior arrests in New York dating from 1992 to 1998, including possession of burglary tools, criminal sex act and theft of service, Essig said. He also had three arrests in New Jersey in 1991, 1992 and 2007 for trespassing, larceny and disorderly conduct, Essig said.
However, James had no previous felony convictions so he was able to purchase a gun, according to Essig.
James has also been linked to multiple rambling YouTube videos -- including one uploaded just on Monday -- that included racist and misogynistic language and discussions of violence, mass shootings and mental health. In recent weeks, the videos documented his travel from his home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to the Northeast, including one in which James said he was heading to the "danger zone."
The grievance-filled videos discuss a set group of people he believed had maligned him, in addition to broad societal and racial groups he appeared to hate.
"I've been through a lot of s**t, where I can say I wanted to kill people," he said in the video uploaded Monday. "I wanted to watch people die right in front of my f**king face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don't want to go to no f**king prison."
In one video posted in February, he criticized a plan by New York Mayor Eric Adams' administration to address safety and homelessness in the subway system, in part through an expanded presence of mental health personnel, saying the effort was "doomed to fail." He described his own negative experience with city health workers during a "crisis of mental health back in the '90s, '80s and '70s."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled prosecutor Sara Winik's last name.
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