• Suspected NYC gunman posted a racist tirade against Spanish-speakers a month before the attack.
• Frank James posted more than 400 videos to his Youtube channel, many full of bigotry and conspiracy theories.
• One from a month before the attack warns of murder and extermination.

Exactly one month before a gunman carried out an elaborately planned attack on a New York City subway in a largely Latin-American neighborhood, Frank James went on a racist Youtube tirade against “Spanish-speakers,” threatening extermination and murder.

Ten people were shot and over two dozen injured during the  rush-hour attack, when the suspect put on a gas mask, opened a canister that filled the train with smoke, and then opened fire inside the a Manhattan-bound N-train and on the platform. 

A manhunt remains underway for James, who police believe carried out the attack.

James published over 400 videos to his Youtube account, many of which were full of bigoted rants, conspiracy theories, and self-pity.

In a post from March 12, titled “My family my enemy,” James spoke about his diagnosed mental illness and how it made it difficult to complete a New York City program to become a machinist in the 1980s. He said that he was often attacked while in the program.

He also placed blame on a man named “Ralph,” who he said attacked him when he went into a mental health counseling office in the South Bronx more than 40-years-ago.

“Spanish speakers can not help you. They can’t do shit for you. That’s the one thing I want you to know in this video,” James said. “Nothing’s changed in the 50 or 45 years since I first walked into the South Bronx mental health counsel.”

James goes on to repeatedly call the man he identified as Ralph a racial slur used against Latinos and said he was glad that he attacked him, because it justifies his murder. He also said Spanish-speakers were created to be laborers and “machines” and calling them a “drain on resources.

“You about to be exterminated,” he said, apparently directing his rant at the man named Ralph. “You and everything like you are about to be wiped off this fucking planet.” 

Sunset Park, the neighborhood surrounding the 36th Street station, is 42% Latino, according to the most recent New York City community assessment.

It’s streets are lined with Latin-American owned businesses. 

After news of the shooting broke, the Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard Tweeted that he was monitoring the situation in Sunset Park, as it has a large Mexican population.

—Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) April 12, 2022

He wrote on Twitter that at least two of the people receiving medical attention are Spanish-speakers, and later posted an update that no Mexican-nationals were hurt in the shooting.