How federal officials are charging Brooklyn subway shooting as terrorism

A chaotic scene of smoke, gunfire and panic broke out on a Brooklyn subway train during rush hour Tuesday morning in what witnesses and elected leaders have described as a terrorizing crime.

While New York officials initially said they weren't investigating the shooting as terrorism, prosecutors charged Frank Robert James on Wednesday afternoon with a federal terrorism charge of targeting a mass transit system.

James would be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn and could face life in prison if convicted, said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

There is no indication James had ties to terror organizations – international or otherwise – and the motive remains unclear, Peace said.

So how are federal officials considering the shooting a type of terrorism?

What is terrorism?

There is no single definition of terrorism, even within the United States. Title 22 of the U.S. Code defines "terrorism" as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents."

"Domestic terrorism" is defined under Title 18 as involving acts dangerous to human life that violate criminal law and appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.

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Portions of Title 18 specifically prohibit "terrorist and other violent attacks against mass transportation systems," Peace said. Section 1992 pertains to terrorist attacks and other violence against railroad carriers and against mass transportation systems on land, on water or through the air.

Peace said his office will attempt to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that James "did knowingly and without lawful authority and permission commit an act, including the use of a dangerous weapon, with the intent to cause death and serious bodily injury to passengers and MTA employees on the New York City subway system."

He added: "The government will prove, among other things, that James traveled across a state line in order to commit the offense and transported materials across a state line in aid of the commission of the offense."

Not all mass shootings are terrorism

Not all mass shootings are charged as terrorism.

While a mass shooting that is based on an employment or familial dispute may be "horrific," the crime isn't categorized as terrorism if it doesn't have a political motive, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Beirich noted the mass shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019 all had political elements and were categorized as terrorism.

Categorizing a crime as an act of terrorism impacts how a case is prosecuted and what the penalties will be, she said. Terrorism also constitutes a societal challenge and has to be countered forcefully, she added.

"Terrorism is intended to instill fear in whatever communities the political motive is targeting, and thus has an impact far beyond just the violence that happens," she said.

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But crimes on mass transit systems have special legal considerations, Beirich said.

"James was charged under a federal terrorism statute that specifically allows for such a charge for attacks against mass transit systems," she said. "In this case, the law doesn’t seem to specify any reasoning for motive, which still appears unclear, but only stipulates that such an attack occurred on mass transit."

James Hawdon, director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech, noted a random mass attack strikes a specific kind of terror.

"Any kind of random act of mass shooting really affects us differently because we all think, well, is this gonna happen again?" he said. "There's no rhyme or reason to it, so there's no predictability of it. And so now, every time I get on a subway, I remember what happened in New York. It just increases the whole perception of risk of living our lives."

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is terrorism? Brooklyn subway shooting raises questions