Timeline tells the story of search for subway shooter

Tuesday's mass shooting in a Brooklyn subway station set off a frantic search for the suspect that spanned several states, and besides the NYPD, included multiple law enforcement agencies.

But in the end, as it turns out, investigators didn't have far to look, apprehending the suspect, Frank James, 62, across the river from the site of the shooting — the 36th Street Station — in Manhattan's East Village.

The following is a timeline of events, beginning the day before James allegedly opened fire and set off smoke bombs Tuesday morning in the subway station, injuring 23 people, and ending with details about his arrest Wednesday afternoon. The information was collected from a federal criminal complaint and a Wednesday news conference, after police took James into custody, that included NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell as well as other law enforcement officials.

• 2:03 p.m. Monday: James rents a white Chevrolet Express Model G2500 cargo van with Arizona license plates at a U-Haul outlet in Philadelphia.
• 4:11 a.m. Tuesday: NYPD surveillance cameras record the U-Haul van crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and entering Brooklyn.
• 6:12 a.m. Tuesday: A surveillance camera at West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn records an individual wearing a yellow hard hat and orange work jacket with reflective tape leaving a U-Haul van on foot. The individual is carrying a backpack in his right hand and dragging a rolling bag with his left hand. The location is two blocks from an N train subway stop.

• 8:26 a.m. Tuesday: The New York City 911 emergency dispatch center receives calls from subway passengers on an N train near the 36th Street stop in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The passengers said they heard multiple gunshots and explosions on the train, and described the car as filling up with smoke.
• 8:40 a.m. Tuesday: A surveillance camera records an individual resembling James leaving the N train subway station at 25th Street, one stop away from the location of the attack.
• 9:15 a.m. Tuesday: James is spotted entering the subway station at 9th Street and 7th Avenue in Park Slope.
• Time unknown, Tuesday: Police recover a jacket James discarded on the subway platform, which had a receipt for a Philadelphia storage unit rented in his name. Records from the ride-sharing service Lyft reveal that James visited the storage unit at 6:17 p.m. on Monday. Authorities execute a search warrant at the storage unit and recover 9 mm ammunition, a threaded 9 mm barrel that allows a silencer to be attached to the weapon, and .223 caliber ammunition, which is used for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
• Time unknown, Wednesday: Authorities execute a search warrant at a Philadelphia apartment James rented on March 28 and recover an empty magazine for a Glock handgun, a taser, a high-capacity rifle magazine and a blue smoke canister.
• Time unknown, Wednesday: NYPD Crime Stoppers receive a tip that James was spotted at a McDonalds at East 6th Street and 1st Avenue in the East Village. James is not there when officers arrive at the restaurant.

• 1:42 p.m., Wednesday: NYPD officers spot James walking north on 1st Avenue, near St. Mark’s Place. He is arrested without incident.
• Wednesday after James' arrest: “My fellow New Yorkers: We got him. We got him,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a virtual appearance at the NYPD press conference.