A 21-year-old Syrian immigrant has become a hero in America after guiding the police to the man who was their top suspect for 29 hours, starting with his shooting spree at a subway station in New York at 8:30 AM last Tuesday, and ending with his arrest at 1 PM the following Wednesday. However, the situation certainly did not conclude for Zakaria Dahan, or Zack as his first name is abbreviated, until he reaped the rewards of his heroism, the first of which is a reward from the city’s police, previously announced for anyone who could provide information leading to the capture of 62-year-old Frank James, amounting to $50,000.
Dahan, who has been an immigrant in New York for five years, works for a company that installs surveillance cameras, as reported by various social media outlets and local news. Yesterday, he held what resembled a press conference on the street, as seen in the video presented above, surrounded by dozens of journalists and onlookers, some of whom requested to double the reward, as no one knows what Frank James might have done had he remained at large.
In his attack, the motive for which remains unknown, James directly hit 10 people and injured 13 others by detonating a smoke bomb and firing 33 shots from a semi-automatic handgun, which was later found at the scene alongside 3 ammunition magazines, an axe, some fireworks, and a container of gasoline, indicating he had planned a massacre. However, his gun suddenly malfunctioned, prompting him to flee the scene, leaving those nearby, including Dahan, who was on his way to work, in extreme fear.
"Please stay back"
On the following day, Wednesday, Zakaria Dahan was installing one of the surveillance cameras when he recognized James in the footage in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. As he informed the reporters, he whispered to himself, “Oh my God, that’s the guy (..) he was carrying a bag on his shoulder and walking on the sidewalk, then he put it down in the street. The moment I saw many people coming from behind him, I went over and said to them: please stay back a bit, this guy is going to do something.” He then spotted a police car, rushed to the officers inside, informed them about James, and within minutes, James was arrested.
There has been ongoing confusion regarding Zakaria’s last name, whether it is Dahan or Tahan. However, it is more widely circulated on social media as Dahan, while Bloomberg reported that he is a Syrian immigrant named Zack Tahan. In the video presented above, he can be heard pronouncing what sounds like a Syrian dialect at the end of his statement while ambiguously stating his last name at the beginning. "Al-Arabiya.net" searched the internet for any account of his on social platforms, such as Facebook, under either name, but found nothing useful.
