While passengers and pedestrians in the subway station were fleeing in panic or tending to the wounded in the moments after the April 12 shooting, James appears to have casually dropped his construction worker disguise. He also left behind several items, such as a credit card, that were later used to identify him and escaped via other local trains and buses. New York City Mayor Eric Adams quickly mobilized police around the city to respond to potential ongoing threats and hunt for the suspect.

Nevertheless, critics have pointed out multiple deficiencies in the initial police response. Embarrassingly, an officer present at the subway station reportedly asked civilians to call 911 because he could not get his radio to work. More generally, witnesses in the area complained that the police who later arrived at the scene showed little sense of urgency, appearing “relaxed” and lighthearted.

After a day of hiding in plain sight during a city-wide manhunt, James reportedly called the NYPD tip line himself, telling police that he was the person being sought. He gave his name, description and alerted the police that he could be found at a specific McDonald’s. Even with this, however, police were initially unable to find James when they arrived at the restaurant, and they eventually relied on civilian bystanders who had recognized the suspect and directed cops to find him.

A post from the Twitter account Screen Slate sums up the criticism of the police manhunt. “If I understand correctly,” the tweet reads, “the subway shooter dropped his weapon, car keys, and credit card at the scene of the crime; called in his location to an NYPD tip line; chilled at at [sic] McDonalds until he got tired of waiting for them to show up; and was apprehended by some guy, Zack?”

If I understand correctly, the subway shooter dropped his weapon, car keys, and credit card at the scene of the crime; called in his location to an NYPD tip line; chilled at at McDonalds until he got tired of waiting for them to show up; and was apprehended by some guy, Zack?

— Screen Slate (@ScreenSlate) April 13, 2022

Mayor Adams counters this criticism, saying that the alleged shooter only called to turn himself in after the extensive search for him left him unable to hide “because of the job we did that gave him no other choice” but to surrender.

Adams, a former police captain, has already been very police-friendly. In the aftermath of the shooting, he again called for more police, saying he would double the number of cops who patrol the subway. Critics of police expansion point out that Adams already added 1,000 new subway cops in February but that this increased police presence did not prevent the subway shooting or lead to the immediate arrest of the suspect. More generally, recent data suggests that gun crime and homicide rates in 2020 went up across the country, with similar rises for cities that decreased, increased or made no changes to police funding.

After the shooting, Adams publicly returned to an idea he had been considering for the New York subway system: installing new, hidden high-tech weapons detectors, as well as other surveillance measures such as facial recognition tools. Critics of these suggestions argue that the new weapons technology is ineffective — malfunctioning and incorrectly identifying ordinary objects as weapons — and that its use could lead to new opportunities for racial bias in policing, a problem for the NYPD and other police departments.

More in line with progressive approaches to public safety, the mayor has also called for expanded mental healthcare options in the wake of the shooting. The suspected shooter referenced long-standing mental health challenges in past videos he posted online. With rising crime rates and regular mass shootings remaining unfortunate realities, the debate will continue within New York and around the country over what are the best — and worst — ways to keep the public safe.