NYC Too Cheap to Reward Subway Shooter Tipsters in Full

The New York Police Department announced on Friday that it would split the $50,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest of Frank James, accused of shooting 10 people in a subway car on Tuesday, five ways.

At least five different people claimed to have spotted James, who is suspected of opening fire on a crowded subway as it pulled up to the 36th Street station in Brooklyn, after throwing a smoke bomb. He shot 10 people and injured another 19. After the shooting, he allegedly stripped off a yellow construction vest and gas mask he was wearing at the time, then went wandering through Brooklyn and Manhattan, hitting multiple major tourist eateries: Katz Deli, Dimes restaurant on the Lower East Side, and a particularly cursed McDonalds, from which he called the police to turn himself in.

During his two-borough tour, multiple people spotted James, including one person who tweeted photos of him sitting outside of Dimes, and the now-famous security camera company employee named Zach Tahhan, who said he saw James in one of the surveillance cameras he was working on. Tahhan held an impromptu press conference on the street outside a bodega on Wednesday afternoon.  

“NYPD detectives traced the many tips that streamed into the NYPD and constructed a timeline of events leading to Mr. James’s apprehension on Wednesday afternoon in Lower Manhattan. Members of the department’s Detective Bureau identified five individuals whose information contributed directly to the arrest of Mr. James – approximately 30 hours after the mass attack,” a press release from the NYPD states. “Each of the five individuals performed actions that, under the established Crime Stoppers procedures, elevate them to be considered for receiving reward money. The plan is for the combined $50,000 reward – comprised of contributions from the Police Foundation, the MTA, and TWU Local 100 – to be split evenly among those identified individuals.”

The NYPD’s recent work has included destroying homeless encampments under the direction of mayor Eric Adams on some of the coldest days of the season, arresting Amazon warehouse union organizers in Staten Island while they tried to deliver lunch to their colleagues, and sending a small donation of its paramilitary equipment to Ukraine, as its budget is several billion times higher than a country at literal war.

During the shooting, one NYPD officer reportedly told victims to call 911, as his radio allegedly wasn’t operational. 

“Thanks to the help of these five good Samaritans, the NYPD was able to do its job and get a dangerous suspect off the streets just hours after his picture was released,” Adams—who inexplicably can’t figure out how to give each of the people doing the job cops couldn’t $50,000—said in the press release. “The bravery of these five individuals are what truly make New York City the greatest city in the world.”

Jason Koebler contributed reporting.