MANHATTAN — The Baltimore man charged with fatally stabbing a black man in Hell’s Kitchen as “practice” for a racially motivated killing spree was indicted on terrorism charges, prosecutors said Monday.
James Harris Jackson, 28, was charged with murder in the first and second degrees as an act of terrorism and murder as a hate crime after stabbing 66-year-old Timothy Caughman on March 20 after traveling to New York to “launch a campaign of terrorism,” the Manhattan District Attorney said.
“Last week, with total presence of mind, he acted on his plan, randomly selecting a beloved New Yorker solely on the basis of his skin color, and stabbing him repeatedly and publicly on a Midtown street corner,” DA Cyrus Vance said in a statement.
“James Jackson wanted to kill black men, planned to kill black men, and then did kill a black man. He chose Midtown as his crime scene because Manhattan is the media capital of the world, and a place where people of different races live together and love one another.”
Jackson turned himself in to police in Times Square, telling officers they needed to arrest him and that he had knives in his pocket.
Investigators later found a 26-inch mini-sword they said he used to stab Caughman in the back while he was collecting bottles to recycle.
The Baltimore man later told police he was angered by black men dating white women.
If found guilty of the top charge, Jackson faces a mandatory life sentence in prison.
He was scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment in Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court Monday.
