{{Short description|Shooting of four Black teenagers by Bernhard Goetz}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Use American English|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox civilian attack | title = 1984 New York City Subway shooting | image = IRT Broadway-Seventh 14th Street Northbound Platform.jpg | caption = The 14th Street station in Manhattan, where Goetz boarded the subway before the shooting | location = New York City, New York, U.S. | coordinates = | date = {{Start date and age|1984|12|22}} | time = | timezone = | type = Mass shooting<ref>{{cite news|publisher=WNYC|url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/subway-attack-update/|quote=As an article on Gothamist reminds us today, mass shootings in New York City subway history are extremely rare.<br />The last biggest one before this was almost 40 years ago, the infamous shooting by that writer named Bernhard Goetz in the 1980s.|first=Brian|last=Lehrer|author-link=Brian Lehrer|date=April 13, 2022|title=Subway Attack Update|access-date=May 1, 2023|archive-date=May 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501142946/https://www.wnyc.org/story/subway-attack-update/|url-status=live}}</ref> | motive = Disputed: * Vigilantism (prosecution's claim)<ref>{{cite news|title='Subway Vigilante' Goetz Goes on Trial in N.Y.|last=Hornblower|first=Margot|date=April 28, 1987|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/04/28/subway-vigilante-goetz-goes-on-trial-in-ny/f7e2ad43-c1bd-49cf-a1cf-b4183eb3afd3/|access-date=June 6, 2025|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> * Anti-black racism (plaintiff's claim in civil case)<ref>{{cite web|title=Jury Hands Down $43M Verdict in Lawsuit Against Goetz|url=https://wc.arizona.edu/papers/89/144/11_1_m.html|work=Arizona Daily Wildcat|agency=Associated Press|date=April 24, 1996|access-date=June 6, 2025}}</ref> * Self-defense (Goetz's claim) | convicted = Bernhard Hugo Goetz | fatalities = | injuries = 4 | convictions = Third-degree criminal possession of a weapon | charges = *Attempted second-degree murder (4 counts) * First-degree assault (4 counts) * Reckless endangerment * Criminal possession of a weapon (4 counts){{efn| * Second-degree criminal possession of a weapon * Third-degree criminal possession of a weapon * Fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (2 counts)}}<ref>{{cite web|title=The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: Jury Deliberations|url=https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/155-jury}}</ref>{{Infobox event | title = | child = yes | sentence = 1 year in jail (released after {{frac|8|1|2}} months) }} | verdict = *Guilty of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon * Not guilty on remaining charges | weapon = Smith & Wesson Model 38 | litigation = Goetz ordered to pay $43 million (${{inflation|US|43|1996|fmt=c}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to Cabey in civil trial for reckless and deliberate infliction of emotional distress<ref>{{Cite web|first1=Jon|last1=Beeman|first2=Evan|last2=Lange|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/goetz/goetzchrono.html|title=The Bernhard Goetz Trial: A Chronology}}</ref> }}
On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz{{efn|Sometimes spelled "Bernard Goetz".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Gilliam|first=Dorothy|date=January 7, 1985|title=Frontier Judgments|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1985/01/07/frontier-judgments/9d936d7a-c9e8-41ff-b22a-48838728bf8e/|access-date=June 6, 2025|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref name="kelley2000">{{Cite news|last=Kelley|first=Tina|date=September 10, 2000|title=FOLLOWING UP; Still Seeking Payment From Bernard Goetz|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/10/nyregion/following-up-still-seeking-payment-from-bernard-goetz.html|access-date=June 6, 2025|work=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819105229/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/10/nyregion/following-up-still-seeking-payment-from-bernard-goetz.html |archive-date=August 19, 2017}}</ref>}} ({{IPAc-en|g|E|t|s}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYPCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT142|title=Justified and Philosophy: Shoot First, Think Later|first1=Rod|last1=Carveth|first2=Robert|last2=Arp|date=December 22, 2014|publisher=Open Court|isbn=9780812698886|via=Google Books}}</ref>) shot four black teenagers on a New York City Subway train in Manhattan after they allegedly tried to rob him.<ref name="johnson1987">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/20/nyregion/youth-shot-in-subway-says-he-didn-t-approach-goetz.html |title=Youth Shot In Subway Says He Didn't Approach Goetz |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 20, 1987 |last=Johnson |first=Kirk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810024304/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/20/nyregion/youth-shot-in-subway-says-he-didn-t-approach-goetz.html |archive-date=August 10, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="NYT_1987-05-02" /><ref name="Brooks">{{Cite journal|jstor=25112354|title=Stories and Verdicts: Bernhard Goetz and New York in Crisis|last1=Brooks|first1=Michael|journal=College Literature|year=1998|volume=25|issue=1|pages=77–93}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Political Trials in History: From Antiquity to the Present |editor-first=Ronald|editor-last=Christenson |date= 1991 |isbn=0-88738-406-4 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=Piscataway, New Jersey|pages=162–163}}</ref> All four victims survived, though one, Darrell Cabey, was paralyzed and suffered brain damage as a result of his injuries.<ref name="kelley2000"/> Goetz fled to Bennington, Vermont, before surrendering to police nine days after the shooting. He was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses. A jury subsequently found Goetz guilty of one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm and acquitted him of the remaining charges. For the firearm offense, he served eight months of a one-year sentence. In 1996, Cabey obtained a $43 million civil judgment (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US|value=43|start_year=1996}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) against Goetz after a civil jury ruled Goetz liable.<ref name="kelley2000"/>
The incident sparked a nationwide debate on crime in major U.S. cities, the legal limits of self-defense, and the extent to which the citizenry could rely on the police to secure their safety.<ref name="Brooks" /> Questions of what impact race—and racism—had on Goetz, the public reaction, and the criminal verdict were hotly contested. Goetz was dubbed the "Subway Vigilante" by the New York press; to his supporters, he came to symbolize frustrations with the high crime rates of the 1980s. The incident has been cited as leading to successful National Rifle Association campaigns to loosen restrictions for concealed carrying of firearms.<ref name="huffingtonpost1">{{cite news |first=Richard|last=Feldman|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-feldman/bernie-goetz-the-subway-g_b_6369128.html |work=HuffPost |location=New York City|title=Bernie Goetz 'The Subway Gunman' 30 Years Later |date=December 22, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711131011/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-feldman/bernie-goetz-the-subway-g_b_6369128.html |archive-date=July 11, 2015}}</ref>
==Incident== In the early afternoon of December 22, 1984, four males in their late teens from the Bronx—19-year-olds Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and Darrell Cabey, and 18-year-old James Ramseur—boarded a downtown 2 train (a Broadway–Seventh Avenue express). Canty would later testify that the victims were en route to steal from video arcade machines in Manhattan.<ref>{{cite web|work=Famous Trials|url=https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/140-cantytestimony|title=The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: Testimony of Troy Canty|quote=[Canty:] " We decided we was gonna go into Manhattan and break into video machines."|access-date=March 9, 2023|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309172853/https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/140-cantytestimony|url-status=live}}</ref> 37-year-old Bernhard Goetz boarded the train at the 14th Street station in Manhattan.<ref name="vv">{{cite news|newspaper=The Village Voice|title=Bernhard Goetz: Notes From Underground|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/bernard-goetz-notes-from-underground/|date=May 12, 1987|last=Hamill|first=Pete|access-date=March 9, 2023|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309172853/https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/08/07/bernard-goetz-notes-from-underground/|url-status=dead}}</ref> At the time, about fifteen to twenty other passengers were in a R22 subway car, the seventh car of the ten-car train.<ref name="Lesly">{{cite book |title=Subway Gunman: A Juror's Account of the Bernhard Goetz Trial |last=Lesly |first=Mark |publisher=British American Publishing |year=1988 |isbn=0-945167-08-3 }}</ref>{{rp|23}}<ref name="Fletcher 1990">{{cite book |title=A Crime of Self-Defense: Bernhard Goetz and the Law on Trial |last=Fletcher |first=George P. |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=June 1990 |isbn=0-226-25334-1}}</ref> Those involved and witnesses disagree what happened next.
Troy Canty asked Goetz how he was,<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Time|title=Jordan Neely's Death Reminds Some New Yorkers of the 1984 Bernhard Goetz Case|first=Olivia B.|last=Waxman|date=May 4, 2023|url=https://time.com/6277087/jordan-neely-bernhard-goetz-history/|access-date=May 5, 2023|archive-date=May 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505162923/https://time.com/6277087/jordan-neely-bernhard-goetz-history/|url-status=live}}</ref> and shortly thereafter stood up, approached Goetz, and made some overture for money:<ref name="Fletcher 1987">{{cite news|magazine=New York Review of Books|last=Fletcher|first=George P.|date=April 23, 1987|title=Goetz on Trial|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1987/04/23/goetz-on-trial/?lp_txn_id=1436073|author-link=George P. Fletcher|access-date=March 16, 2023|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405025745/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1987/04/23/goetz-on-trial/?lp_txn_id=1436073|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Canty he alone approached Goetz, and said, "Can I have $5?"<ref name="Canty Transcript">{{cite web|work=Famous Trials|url=https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/140-cantytestimony|title=The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: Testimony of Troy Canty|quote=[Canty:] "As far as I can remember, I walked up to him and asked him, you know, 'Can I have $5?'"|access-date=March 9, 2023|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309172853/https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/140-cantytestimony|url-status=live}}</ref> (~$15 in 2026). According to Goetz, Canty was joined by another of the teens and Canty said, "Give me five dollars" in a "normal tone" of voice with a smile on his face.<ref name="NYT_1987-05-02" /><ref name="Video Transcript">{{cite book|last=Wu|first=Tim|author-link=Tim Wu|date=March 2017|title=Criminal Law / Spring 2017|chapter=The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: Goetz's Videotaped Confession|chapter-url=https://opencasebook.org/casebooks/408-criminal-law-revisions-for-future-use/resources/16.10-the-trial-of-bernhard-goetz-goetzs-videotaped-confession/|publisher=H20|access-date=February 28, 2023|archive-date=February 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228155733/https://opencasebook.org/casebooks/408-criminal-law-revisions-for-future-use/resources/16.10-the-trial-of-bernhard-goetz-goetzs-videotaped-confession/|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1986, the NY Court of Appeals concluded from grand jury evidence that Goetz pulled a handgun and fired four shots at the four men, initially striking three of them.<ref>{{Cite web |title=People V. Goetz |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/1986/68-n-y-2d-96-497-n-e-2d-41.html |access-date=July 22, 2023 |website=Justia Law |language=en |quote=Goetz responded by standing up, pulling out his handgun and firing four shots in rapid succession.}}</ref> After initially opening fire, Goetz then bent down to Cabey, who was cowering on the ground, and said, "You don't look so bad. Here's another," and shot once again, missing.<ref>{{cite web | last=Newman | first=Philip | title=Goetz to victim: 'You don't look so bad. Here's another' | work=United Press International | date=February 28, 1985 | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/02/28/Goetz-to-victim-You-dont-look-so-bad-Heres-another/6427478414800/ | access-date=June 13, 2024 |quote=After standing up and shooting each of the youths once, Goetz bent over to check each of his victims, the confession said. One of the men was slumped against a subway seat with no blood visible. Goetz then told police he said, 'You don't look so bad. Here's another,' and fired at him again. That shot missed, police said.}}</ref> Cabey's spine was severed, resulting in brain damage and partial paralysis.<ref>{{cite web|work=United Press International|last=Pessin|first=Esther|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/02/06/A-paralyzed-brain-damaged-victim-of-subway-gunman-Bernhard-Goetz/5898508050000/|date=February 6, 1986|title=A paralyzed, brain-damaged victim of subway gunman Bernhard Goetz...}}</ref><ref name="kelley2000"/>
Shortly after the shooting, the train conductor entered the car and loudly exclaimed, "What's going on?" He approached Goetz and asked what happened. Goetz pointed to the north end of the car and then told him, "I don't know ... they tried to rob me and I shot them."<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|102}} The conductor then went to the passengers to check if they were injured. The conductor asked Goetz if he was a police officer, which Goetz denied. He then asked Goetz for the gun, which Goetz refused to turn over.<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|102}}
==Shooter== '''Bernhard Hugo Goetz''' was born on November 7, 1947, in the Kew Gardens, Queens neighborhood to German immigrants.<ref>{{cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |author-link=Robert D. McFadden |date=January 6, 1985 |title=Goetz: A Private Man in a Public Debate |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/06/nyregion/goetz-a-private-man-in-a-public-debate.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309172852/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/06/nyregion/goetz-a-private-man-in-a-public-debate.html |archive-date=March 9, 2023 |access-date=March 9, 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Agus |first=Carole |date=December 14, 1986 |title=Wolf Or Wimp? |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1986/12/14/wolf-or-wimp/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120329094850/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-12-14/features/8604030432_1_mugged-subway-vigilante-new-york-city-subway/2 |archive-date=March 29, 2012 |work=Chicago Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Lillian B. |author-link=Lillian B. Rubin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rvhNqhrgkLcC&pg=PA47 |title=Quiet Rage: Bernie Goetz in a Time of Madness |date=August 14, 1988 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520064461 |via=Google Books}}</ref> His father was Lutheran and his mother was Jewish before converting to Lutheranism.<ref>{{cite news |last=McNamara |first=Joseph |date=January 22, 1987 |title=Book Review: Goetz: Anger of a Loner, Rage in the Mean Streets |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-01-22-vw-152-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20170310040446/http://articles.latimes.com/1987-01-22/news/vw-152_1_bernie-goetz |archive-date=March 10, 2017 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=January 7, 1985 |title=Crime Frustrated Goetz, Neighbors Say |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-01-07-mn-11761-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120329084723/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-07/news/mn-11761_1_subway-gunman |archive-date=March 29, 2012 |work=Los Angeles Times |agency=United Press International}}</ref><ref name="Fletcher 1990" />{{rp|10}}<ref>{{cite news |date=March 3, 1988 |title=Goetz Gets $140,550 From Father's Estate |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/03/nyregion/goetz-gets-140550-from-father-s-estate.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814142358/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/03/nyregion/goetz-gets-140550-from-father-s-estate.html |archive-date=August 14, 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> While growing up, Goetz lived with his parents and three older siblings in Upstate New York, where his father ran a dairy farm and a bookbinding business.<ref name="Time_1985-04-08">{{cite magazine |last1=Stengel |first1=Richard |author-link=Richard Stengel |last2=Gauger |first2=Marcia |last3=Kalb |first3=Barry |date=April 8, 1985 |title=A Troubled and Troubling Life |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141513,00.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510233718/https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141513,00.html |archive-date=May 10, 2015 |magazine=Time}}</ref> Goetz attended boarding school in Switzerland<ref name="biography.com">{{cite web |title=Bernhard Goetz |url=https://www.biography.com/people/bernhard-goetz-578520 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501200606/http://www.biography.com/people/bernhard-goetz-578520 |archive-date=May 1, 2017 |access-date=June 29, 2017 |website=Biography.com}}</ref> before returning to the United States to obtain a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and nuclear engineering from New York University.<ref name="Time_1985-04-08" /> Goetz then moved to Orlando, Florida, where his family had relocated, and worked at his father's residential development business. After a divorce, Goetz moved back to New York City, where he started an electronics business out of his Greenwich Village apartment.<ref name="Time_1985-04-08" />
According to Goetz, in early 1981, he was the victim of a robbery at the Canal Street subway station.<ref name="Video Transcript" /><ref name="NYT_1985-01-01">{{cite news |last=Daley |first=Suzanne |author-link=Suzanne Daley |date=January 1, 1985 |title=Man Tells Police He Shot Youths In Subway Train |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/01/nyregion/man-tells-police-he-shot-youths-in-subway-train.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902233449/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/01/nyregion/man-tells-police-he-shot-youths-in-subway-train.html |archive-date=September 2, 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> Goetz reported that three black teenagers had smashed him into a plate-glass door and thrown him to the ground, injuring his chest and knee.<ref name="Friedman">{{cite magazine |last=Friedman |first=Myra |date=February 18, 1985 |others=With Michael Daly |title=My Neighbor Bernie Goetz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMEBAAAAMBAJ |magazine=New York}}</ref><ref name="Lesly" /> Goetz was involved in a struggle with one of the teenagers until police arrived; that individual accused Goetz of assaulting him.<ref name="Friedman" /> To his frustration, Goetz was detained for six hours, while the person he accused was released in two and a half hours.<ref name="Friedman" /> Goetz subsequently applied for a permit to carry a concealed handgun, on the basis of routinely carrying valuable equipment and large sums of cash, but his application was denied on the grounds of "insufficient need".<ref name="Time_1985-04-08" /> During a trip to Florida, he bought the five-shot .38-caliber revolver that he ultimately would use in the shooting.<ref name="Time_1985-04-08" />
Goetz was known to use racist language; his neighbor, Myra Friedman, reported overhearing Goetz having said, "The only way we're going to clean up this street is to get rid of the spics and niggers" at a community meeting eighteen months before the shooting.<ref name="Friedman" /><ref name="vv at gunpoint">{{cite news |last=Crouch |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Crouch |date=March 12, 1985 |title=Bernie Goetz: The Black Community at Gunpoint |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/i-the-jury-the-black-community-at-gunpoint/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306204748/https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/09/17/i-the-jury-the-black-community-at-gunpoint/ |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |access-date=March 6, 2023 |newspaper=The Village Voice}}</ref> Friedman's account was excluded from the criminal jury trial,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lee |first=Cynthia Kwei Yung |year=1996 |title=Race and Self-Defense: Toward a Normative Conception of Reasonableness |url=https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2060&context=mlr |url-status=live |journal=Minnesota Law Review |volume=81 |pages=367–500 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306203243/https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2060&context=mlr |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |access-date=March 6, 2023}}</ref>{{rp|472}} but in a subsequent civil action, Goetz admitted to having used both epithets at a neighborhood meeting.<ref name="haberman">{{cite news |last=Haberman |first=Clyde |author-link=Clyde Haberman |date=April 12, 1996 |title=One Question That Matters In Goetz Case |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/12/nyregion/nyc-one-question-that-matters-in-goetz-case.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308161538/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/12/nyregion/nyc-one-question-that-matters-in-goetz-case.html |archive-date=March 8, 2023 |access-date=March 8, 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>
==Victims== Each of the four youths shot by Goetz was facing a trial or hearing on criminal charges at the time of the incident. Ten weeks prior to being shot, Cabey was arrested on charges that he held up three men with a shotgun in the Bronx, and he was released on $2,000 bail.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/10/nyregion/4-youths-shot-by-goetz-faced-criminal-counts.html NY Times Jan 10, 1985 4 YOUTHS SHOT BY GOETZ FACED CRIMINAL COUNTS</ref> Cabey failed to appear at his next court date, resulting in an additional arrest warrant.
==Goetz's flight, surrender, and interrogation==
After the shooting, Goetz took a cab back to his 14th Street home before renting a car and driving north to Bennington, Vermont; he then burned the distinctive blue jacket he had been wearing and scattered the pieces of his gun in the woods.<ref name="Famous Trials">{{cite web|first=Douglas O.|last=Linder|author-link=Doug Linder|title=The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: An Account|work=Famous Trials|url=https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/133-home|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309172856/https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/133-home|url-status=live}}</ref> Goetz stayed at various hotels in New England for several days.<ref name="Famous Trials" />
On December 26, an anonymous hotline caller told New York City police that Goetz matched the gunman's description, owned a gun, and had been assaulted previously.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-02">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/02/nyregion/irt-suspect-is-charged-as-fugitive.html |title=IRT Suspect Is Charged As Fugitive |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 2, 1985 |last=Daley |first=Suzanne|author-link=Suzanne Daley |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202070515/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/02/nyregion/irt-suspect-is-charged-as-fugitive.html |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |ref=CITEREFDaley1985Jan02}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1985-01-04_2">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/04/news/goetz-drove-across-new-england-for-several-days-before-surrender.html |title=Goetz Drove Across New England For Several Days Before Surrender |newspaper=The New York Times |last=Daley |first=Suzanne|author-link=Suzanne Daley|date=January 4, 1985 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202070728/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/04/news/goetz-drove-across-new-england-for-several-days-before-surrender.html |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |ref=CITEREFDaley1985Jan04}}</ref> On December 29, Goetz called his neighbor, Myra Friedman, who told him that police had come by his apartment looking for him and had left notes asking to be contacted as soon as possible.<ref name="Friedman" /> Goetz told Friedman he had felt as though he was in a "combat situation", needing to "think more quickly than [his] opposition."<ref name="Friedman" />
Goetz returned to New York City on December 30, turned in the car, picked up some clothing and business papers at his apartment, rented another car, and drove back to New England.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-04_2" /> Shortly after noon the next day, he walked into the Concord, New Hampshire police headquarters and told the officer on duty, "I am the person they are seeking in New York."<ref name="NYT_1985-01-04_2" /> Once the officer realized that Goetz was a genuine suspect, Goetz was ''Mirandized'' and elected to talk to the police.<ref name="Time_1985-04-08"/> The Concord police made an audio recording of Goetz's interview.<ref name="Video Transcript" /> New York City police detectives Susan Braver, Michael Clark, and Dan Hattendorf subsequently interviewed Goetz, and a two-hour video recording of that interview was made.<ref name="Video Transcript" /> Both interviews were played at the criminal trial.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/14/nyregion/jury-watches-an-angry-goetz-on-tape.html|title=Jury Watches an Angry Goetz on Tape|last=Johnson|first=Kirk|date=May 14, 1987|access-date=March 29, 2023|archive-date=March 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329153023/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/14/nyregion/jury-watches-an-angry-goetz-on-tape.html|url-status=live|ref=Johnson1987May14}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1987-05-03">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/03/weekinreview/everybody-is-edgy-as-goetz-trial-opens.html |title=Everybody Is Edgy As Goetz Trial Opens |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 3, 1987 |last=Johnson |first=Kirk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306204855/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/03/weekinreview/everybody-is-edgy-as-goetz-trial-opens.html |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |ref=Johnson1987May03}}</ref>
Goetz told police that he felt that he was being robbed and was at risk of violence, and he explained he had been both mugged once before and nearly mugged several times:<ref name="Video Transcript" /> "I've been in situations where I've shown the gun. ... The threat, when I was surrounded, and at that point, showing the gun would have been enough, but when I saw this one fellow [Canty], when I saw the gleam in his eye ... and the smile on his face ... and they say it's a joke and lot of them say it's a joke."<ref name="Video Transcript" /><ref name="68_NY2d_96">{{cite court |url=http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/archives/p_goetz.htm |litigants=People v. Goetz|vol=68|reporter=N.Y.2d|opinion=96 |court=New York Court of Appeals |date=July 8, 1986 }}</ref> Asked what his intentions were when he drew his revolver, Goetz replied, "My intention was to murder them, to hurt them, to make them suffer as much as possible."<ref name="NYT_1987-04-30">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/30/nyregion/you-have-to-think-in-a-cold-blooded-way.html |title=... You Have To Think In A Cold-Blooded Way |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 30, 1987 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607233032/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/30/nyregion/you-have-to-think-in-a-cold-blooded-way.html |archive-date=June 7, 2017 }}</ref> Goetz also said that, after firing four shots, he moved to Cabey and said, "You seem to be doing all right, here's another," before shooting at him again, missing.<ref name="Video Transcript" />
Later in the tape, Goetz said, "If I had more bullets, I would have shot them all again and again. My problem was I ran out of bullets."<ref name="Video Transcript" /> He added, "I was gonna', I was gonna' gouge one of the guys' [Canty's] eyes out with my keys afterwards", but said he stopped when he saw the fear in his eyes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1322122.html<!-- |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73818658.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+14%2C+1987&author=Margot+Hornblower&desc=Intended+to+Gouge+Eye+Of+Teen%2C+Goetz+Tape+Says%3B%60My+Problem+Was+I+Ran+Out+of+Bullets%27 --> |title=Intended to Gouge Eye Of Teen, Goetz Tape Says; 'My Problem Was I Ran Out of Bullets' |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 14, 1987 |last=Hornblower |first=Margot |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023052130/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1322122.html |archive-date=October 23, 2012 |access-date=February 11, 2009 |ref=CITEREFHornblower1987May14}}</ref> He denied any premeditation for the shooting, something on which the press had speculated.<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|58}}
==Legal aftermath== ===Criminal case=== Goetz was brought back to Manhattan on January 3, 1985, and arraigned on four charges of attempted murder, with bail set at $50,000. He was held in protective custody at the Rikers Island prison hospital.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-04">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/04/nyregion/no-headline-193196.html |title=Goetz Held at Rikers I. In $50,000 Bail in Wounding of 4 Teenagers on IRC |quote=Under tight security, Bernhard Hugo Goetz was returned ...|newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 4, 1985 |last=Chambers |first=Marcia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128135252/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/04/nyregion/no-headline-193196.html |archive-date=November 28, 2017 }}</ref> Refusing offers of bail assistance from the public and from his family, he posted bail with his own funds and was released on bond January 8.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-09">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/09/nyregion/goetz-posts-bail-and-is-freed-youths-he-shot-won-t-testify.html |title=Goetz Posts Bail And Is Freed; Youths He Shot Won't Testify |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 9, 1985 |last=Chambers |first=Marcia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128104113/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/09/nyregion/goetz-posts-bail-and-is-freed-youths-he-shot-won-t-testify.html |archive-date=November 28, 2017|ref=Chambers1985Jan09}}</ref>
==== Indictments ==== {{for|further information on the second indictment and subsequent appeal|People v. Goetz }} Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau asked a grand jury to indict Goetz on four counts of attempted murder, four of assault, four of reckless endangerment, and one of criminal possession of a weapon.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-26">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/26/nyregion/grand-jury-votes-to-indict-goetz-only-on-gun-possession-charges.html |title=Grand Jury Votes To Indict Goetz Only On Gun Possession Charges |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 26, 1985 |last=Chambers |first=Marcia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202070526/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/26/nyregion/grand-jury-votes-to-indict-goetz-only-on-gun-possession-charges.html |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |ref=Chambers1985Jan26}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1985-02-28">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/28/nyregion/goetz-spoke-to-one-youth-then-shot-again-police-say.html |title=Goetz Spoke To One Youth, Then Shot Again, Police Say |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 28, 1985 |last=Chambers |first=Marcia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202070512/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/28/nyregion/goetz-spoke-to-one-youth-then-shot-again-police-say.html |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |ref=Chambers1985Feb28}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1985-03-01">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/01/nyregion/morgenthau-says-goetz-case-may-go-to-2d-grand-jury.html |title=Morgenthau Says Goetz Case May Go To 2D Grand Jury |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 1, 1985 |last=Roberts |first=Sam |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202070931/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/01/nyregion/morgenthau-says-goetz-case-may-go-to-2d-grand-jury.html |archive-date=February 2, 2017 }}</ref> On January 25, the grand jury refused to indict Goetz on the more serious charges, voting indictments only for unlawful gun possession—one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, for carrying in public the loaded unlicensed gun used in the subway shooting, and two counts of possession in the fourth degree, for keeping two other unlicensed handguns in his home.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-26"/>
In March 1985, Morgenthau announced that the state had obtained new evidence—an unnamed witness—and sought leave to convene a second grand jury; Judge Stephen Crane granted Morgenthau's motion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.triroc.com/BHG/NYSvBG.htm |title=THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF YORK Against BERNHARD GOETZ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232209/http://www.triroc.com/BHG/NYSvBG.htm |archive-date=December 30, 2013 }}</ref> Morgenthau granted immunity to Troy Canty and James Ramseur, which he had previously declined to do, allowing them to testify before the second grand jury.<ref name="Fletcher 1987"/> The second grand jury indicted Goetz on charges of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and weapons possession.<ref name="NYT_1987-06-17">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/17/nyregion/goets-cleared-subway-attack-gun-count-upheld-acquittal-won-shooting-4-youths.html |title=Goetz Is Cleared In Subway Attack; Gun Count Upheld; Acquittal Won In Shooting Of 4 Youths – Prison Term Possible On Weapon Charge |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 17, 1987 |last=Johnson |first=Kirk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104113856/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/17/nyregion/goets-cleared-subway-attack-gun-count-upheld-acquittal-won-shooting-4-youths.html |archive-date=November 4, 2017 |ref=Johnson1987Jun17}}</ref> In January 1986, Judge Crane granted a motion by Goetz to dismiss these new indictments.<ref name="Meislin basis for dismissal">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Morgenthau to Appeal Ruling on Goetz|date=January 18, 1986|first=Richard J.|last=Meislin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/18/nyregion/morgenthau-to-appeal-ruling-on-goetz.html|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405025744/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/18/nyregion/morgenthau-to-appeal-ruling-on-goetz.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Judge Crane dismissed the charges on two grounds: First, he held that the prosecutor had erred when instructing the grand jury that, for Goetz's actions to be protected by New York's self-defense statute, they would have to be objectively reasonable.<ref name="Meislin basis for dismissal"/> Second, he found that Canty and Ramseur "strongly appeared" to have perjured themselves.<ref name="Meislin basis for dismissal"/><ref name="The Nation">{{cite news|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=December 6, 1985|title=The Nation|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-06-mn-580-story.html|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=March 23, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323190958/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-06-mn-580-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1985-11-27">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/27/nyregion/questioning-planned-for-youth-goetz-shot.html |title=Questioning Planned For Youth Goetz Shot |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 27, 1985 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124053214/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/27/nyregion/questioning-planned-for-youth-goetz-shot.html |archive-date=November 24, 2017 }}</ref>{{efn|Although Judge Crane did not specify his bases for the perjury finding, ''The New York Times'' reported that it appeared to be based on alleged statements by Canty, Ramseur, and Cabey: According to police officer Peter Smith, who responded to the shooting, Canty told him that the group was planning to rob Goetz, but Goetz shot them first, though Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward said through a spokesman that he did not find Smith's account credible. Ramseur gave an interview to the Cable News Network saying he believed Goetz thought he was going to be robbed. And Cabey, while in the hospital, allegedly told ''New York Daily News'' reporter Jimmy Breslin that the other members of the group planned to rob Goetz because he "looked like easy bait" (though Cabey denied involvement himself).<ref name="Meislin basis for dismissal"/><ref name="The Nation" />}}
The prosecution appealed the case, maintaining that a self-defense justification required objective reasonableness and that the statements Judge Crane relied on did not indicate perjury or require dismissal.<ref name="Meislin basis for dismissal"/> In July 1986, after an appellate division upheld Judge Crane's dismissal, the New York Court of Appeals reversed the appellate division and reinstated the charges. The high court clarified that a defendant's subjective perception of imminent danger does not, by itself, justify the use of force; instead, it held, that belief must be both subjectively held ''and'' objectively reasonable.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1802&context=faculty_publications|pages=301–06|title="Murder and the Reasonable Man" Revisited: A Response to Victoria Nourse|last1=Lee|first1=Cynthia|journal=Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law|volume=3|year=2005|access-date=February 17, 2023|archive-date=February 13, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213165704/https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1802&context=faculty_publications|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|304}}<ref name="68_NY2d_96"/> Additionally, the court held that Judge Crane's perjury finding was "speculat[ive]" and "particularly inappropriate": "[A]ll that has come to light is hearsay evidence that conflicts with part of Canty's testimony. There is no statute or controlling case law requiring dismissal of an indictment merely because, months later, the prosecutor becomes aware of some information which may lead to the defendant's acquittal."<ref name="68_NY2d_96"/>
==== Trial ==== In December 1986, jury selection began and, in April 1987, the trial commenced before a Manhattan jury of ten whites and two blacks, six of whom had been victims of street crime.<ref name="NYT_1996-04-24">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/24/opinion/the-goetz-verdict.html |department=Editorial|title=The Goetz Verdict |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 24, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421115634/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/24/opinion/the-goetz-verdict.html |archive-date=April 21, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="TIME_1987-06-29">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964773,00.html |title=Not Guilty |magazine=Time |date=June 29, 1987 |first1=Otto|last1=Friedrich |first2=Roger|last2=Franklin |first3=Raji|last3=Samghabad |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022233418/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964773,00.html |archive-date=October 22, 2010 }}</ref> Goetz was represented by Barry Slotnick and Mark M. Baker. Goetz conceded that he had shot the four men, but he asserted that his actions were justified by section 35.15(2) of New York's justification statute, which, with non-relevant exceptions, permitted the use of deadly force when actor "reasonably believes that such other person is using or about to use deadly physical force ... or ... is committing or attempting to commit a kidnapping, forcible rape, forcible sodomy or robbery".<ref name="68_NY2d_96"/>
{{cquote|The key question for the jurors was how to separate the vague perception of intimidation from the more specific threat of robbery, or from the "threat of deadly physical force," which Justice Crane told the jurors were the two grounds that would justify Mr. Goetz's use of his weapon. | author = Kirk Johnson | source = ''The New York Times''<ref name="NYT_1987-06-17"/> }}
Both prosecution and defense agreed that the jury would be required to consider several factual questions, including (1) whether the teenagers had acted as a group or as individuals, (2) whether Goetz had shot Cabey after the immediate threat was over, and (3) whether Goetz was threatened.<ref>{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Kirk |date=April 26, 1987 |title=Details Viewed as Key in Goetz Trial |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/26/nyregion/details-viewed-as-key-in-goetz-trial.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230225175311/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/26/nyregion/details-viewed-as-key-in-goetz-trial.html |archive-date=February 25, 2023 |access-date=February 25, 2023 |work=The New York Times |language=English |ref=Johnson1987Apr26}}</ref>
As to whether Goetz had been threatened, Canty testified that he was merely panhandling when he asked Goetz for $5.<ref name="Canty Transcript"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/6cac2a052514d2bb4b0c01a15b108add|title=Defense Opens In Goetz Case With Story of 1981 Mugging|work=Associated Press News|first=Samuel|last=Maull|date=May 22, 1987|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405031248/https://apnews.com/article/6cac2a052514d2bb4b0c01a15b108add|url-status=live}}</ref> Ramseur testified that Canty approached Goetz alone and that he, Allen, and Cabey remained seated,<ref>{{cite web|title=The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: Testimony of James Ramseur|work=Famous Trials|url=https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/145-ramseurtestimony|access-date=March 9, 2023|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309172853/https://www.famous-trials.com/goetz/145-ramseurtestimony|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.law.virginia.edu/dengrove/writeup/subway-vigilante-bernard-goetz-self-defense-trial|title=Subway Vigilante Bernard Goetz: Self-Defense On Trial|work=UVA Law: Dengrove Collection Writeup|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405025746/https://archives.law.virginia.edu/dengrove/writeup/subway-vigilante-bernard-goetz-self-defense-trial|url-status=live}}</ref> but Ramseur's testimony was stricken after he professed his belief that Goetz would be acquitted regardless of the evidence and eventually refused to answer Slotnick's questions.<ref name="Famous Trials"/><ref name="AP Ramseur">{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/f6323a061276d26a985c06cb3d1b394e|title=Ramseur Testimony Stricken|first=Jerry|last=Schwartz|work=Associated Press News|date=May 28, 1987|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405025746/https://apnews.com/article/f6323a061276d26a985c06cb3d1b394e|url-status=live}}</ref> Neither Goetz nor Cabey testified, and Allen took the Fifth Amendment.<ref name="Lesly" /> Amanda Gilbert, a witness, testified that Cabey, after being shot, told her, "I didn't do anything. He shot me for nothing," but her testimony was stricken as hearsay.<ref name="Famous Trials"/> The defense called police officer Peter Smith, who testified that, after he arrived on the scene, Canty had told him that the group was planning to rob Goetz.<ref name="Famous Trials"/> On cross examination, the prosecution pointed out that Smith had failed to report the statement to his superiors or to a reporter when giving a television interview.<ref name="AP Ramseur"/><ref name="Famous Trials"/>
Another point of contention at trial was whether Goetz had shot at least some of the men in the back.<ref name="UPI Day">{{cite web|agency=United Press International|title=Final Goetz Trial Witness Rebuts Defense Claims|website=Los Angeles Times |date=June 9, 1987|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-09-mn-6045-story.html|access-date=February 22, 2023|archive-date=February 22, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222183646/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-09-mn-6045-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> For the defense, Dominick DiMaio, Suffolk County's former medical examiner, testified that Allen, Canty, Cabey, and Ramseur had been standing in a semi-circle around Goetz when he opened fire.<ref name="UPI Day"/> However, the county's then-current medical examiner, Charles Hirsch, offered rebuttal testimony that it was medically impossible to determine how the victims were positioned when shot, and he also found that the bullets that hit Allen and Cabey had traveled from back to front, suggesting that both had been shot in the back.<ref name="UPI Day"/> Ballistics expert Joseph Quirk, for the defense, testified that Allen had been shot while ducking rather than while running away.<ref name="Famous Trials"/> On cross examination, Quirk conceded that the prosecution's theory was also consistent with the evidence, and, after being shown a photograph of a bullet-entry wound in Allen's back, Quirk admitted that he had based his theory as to Allen on incorrect information provided to him by the defense.<ref name="Famous Trials"/>
Specifically related to Goetz's shooting of Cabey, the parties contested whether Cabey had been struck by the fourth or fifth shot and whether, if the fifth, Goetz had paused before firing.<ref name="Fletcher 1990" />{{rp|pp=69,126}} According to the prosecution, Goetz shot the seated Cabey at point-blank range with his fifth bullet; the defense argued that Goetz had fired all five shots in short order and Cabey had been hit by the fourth shot before collapsing.<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|208}} One witness testified that, consistent with Goetz's since-recanted police statement, Goetz opened fire before approaching to within "two to three feet" of a seated Cabey; the witness demonstrated how Goetz stood directly in front of Cabey and fired downward, shooting Cabey in the stomach.<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|138}}<ref name="Fletcher 1990" />{{rp|123–125}} However, the eight other witnesses who testified on the matter reported that all of the shots came in "rapid succession"<ref name="Fletcher 1990" />{{rp|171}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/06/11/subway-gunmans-trial-winding-to-a-close/e76a8123-1c50-4814-b93d-b31d0a589c7b/|title=Subway Gunman's Trial Winding to a Close|first=Margot|last=Hornblower|author-link=Margot Roosevelt|date=June 11, 1987|newspaper=The Washington Post |ref=CITEREFHornblower1987Jun11}}</ref>—one said the firing lasted "about a second",<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|102}} and none of those eight testified that they had observed Goetz standing in front of Cabey.<ref name="Lesly" />{{rp|235}}
==== Verdict and post-verdict appeal ====
Goetz was acquitted of the attempted-murder and first-degree-assault charges and convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree for carrying a loaded, unlicensed weapon in a public place.<ref name="NYT_1987-06-17"/>{{efn|The jury found that Goetz lacked the specific intent to commit attempted murder, never technically reaching the justification question; however, because intent was not seriously challenged at trial, subsequent analyses postulated that the jury had effectively incorporated self-defense into the intent analysis.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Self-Defense And the Mistaken Racist|first=Stephen P.|last=Garvey|date=Winter 2008|volume=11|journal=New Criminal Law Review|issue=1|doi=10.1525/nclr.2008.11.1.119|url=https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1306&context=facpub|pages=119–171|access-date=March 22, 2023|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405025745/https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1306&context=facpub|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}{{rp|121 n.18}}</ref><ref name="Fletcher 1990"/>}} Goetz was originally sentenced to six months in jail, one year's psychiatric treatment, five years' probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|first=Howard|last=Kurtz|author-link=Howard Kurtz|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/10/20/goetz-sentenced-to-6-months-for-subway-shootings/f4449db4-7aef-4ab5-b571-ed83ecb9c327/|date=October 20, 1987|title=Goetz Sentenced to 6 Months for Subway Shootings}}</ref> Goetz appealed the conviction and sentence.<ref name="Sullivan 1989">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/14/nyregion/goetz-is-given-one-year-term-on-gun-charge.html|title=Goetz Is Given One-Year Term On Gun Charge|first=Ronald|last=Sullivan|date=January 14, 1989|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=March 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307151230/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/14/nyregion/goetz-is-given-one-year-term-on-gun-charge.html|url-status=live}}</ref> As to the conviction, Goetz argued that the judge's jury instructions improperly discouraged jury nullification; the appellate division and New York Court of Appeals rejected that argument.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=University of Chicago Law Review|title=Silencing Nullification Advocacy Inside the Jury Room and Outside the Courtroom|first=Nancy J.|last=King|year=1998|url=https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4964&context=uclrev|volume=65|issue=2|pages=433–500|doi=10.2307/1600227|jstor=1600227|hdl=1803/6502|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=March 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307170647/https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4964&context=uclrev|url-status=live|hdl-access=free}}</ref>{{rp|475 n.158}}<ref>{{cite court|litigants=People v. Goetz|vol=73 |reporter=N.Y.2d|opinion=751|pinpoint=752–53|court=New York Court of Appeals|date=November 22, 1988|url=https://casetext.com/case/people-v-goetz-3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307170139/https://casetext.com/case/people-v-goetz-3|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 7, 2023}}</ref> As to the sentence, Goetz argued that the state's gun laws required, at minimum, a one-year sentence.<ref name="Sullivan 1989"/> (Under New York's then-existing law, a defendant sentenced to six months would have been required to serve, at minimum, 90 days, while a defendant sentenced to one year would be eligible for release after 60 days.<ref name="Sullivan 1989"/>) On this point, the appellate court agreed, overturning the sentence.<ref>{{cite news|work=Deseret News|title=Goetz Is Sent to Jail for 1 Year; Court Overturns Original Sentence, Citing N.Y. Gun Law|url=https://www.deseret.com/1989/1/14/18791414/goetz-is-sent-to-jail-for-1-year-br-court-overturns-original-sentence-citing-n-y-gun-law|date=January 14, 1989|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=March 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307151230/https://www.deseret.com/1989/1/14/18791414/goetz-is-sent-to-jail-for-1-year-br-court-overturns-original-sentence-citing-n-y-gun-law|url-status=live}}</ref> On remand, Judge Crane sentenced Goetz to one-year incarceration and a $5,000 fine.<ref name="Sullivan 1989" /> Goetz ultimately served eight months,<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Goetz Released After Spending 8 Months in Jail|first=Michael|last=Freitag|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/21/nyregion/goetz-released-after-spending-8-months-in-jail.html|date=September 21, 1989|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=March 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307151230/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/21/nyregion/goetz-released-after-spending-8-months-in-jail.html|url-status=live}}</ref> receiving credit for good behavior.<ref>{{cite news|work=United Press International|last=Goldberg|first=Barbara|date=September 20, 1989|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/09/20/Subway-gunman-Goetz-gets-out-of-jail/2344622267200/|title=Subway gunman Goetz gets out of jail}}</ref>
=== Civil litigation ===
==== ''Cabey v. Goetz'' ==== A month after the shootings, Cabey, represented by William Kunstler and Ron Kuby, filed a civil suit against Goetz.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coyne |first1=Randall |title=Defending the Despised: William Moses Kunstler |journal=American Indian Law Review |year=1995 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=257–279 |doi=10.2307/20068791 |jstor=20068791 |url=https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr/vol20/iss1/9 |access-date=December 22, 2021 |archive-date=November 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120183217/https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr/vol20/iss1/9/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The civil case was tried in 1996.<ref name="NEWS_1996-04-23">{{cite news |last=Fitz-Gibbon |first=Jorge |date=April 23, 1996 |title=Goetz A Jerk, Not A Racist, Jury Told |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/1996/04/23/goetz-a-jerk-not-a-racist-jury-told/ |access-date=March 21, 2025 |newspaper=New York Daily News|issn=2692-1251}}</ref> Unlike Goetz's criminal jury, which was predominantly White and from Manhattan, the civil jury was half African American and entirely from the Bronx.<ref name="Brooks"/>{{rp|91}}<ref name="integrated"/> Additionally, crime in New York City had fallen substantially since the criminal trial.<ref name="Brooks"/>{{rp|91}}<ref name="Gladwell Different">{{cite news|first=Malcolm|last=Gladwell|author-link=Malcolm Gladwell|title=In a Different New York, A Different Goetz Trial|date=April 21, 1996|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/21/in-a-different-new-york-a-different-goetz-trial/b1369624-e31d-4963-af5f-2953c8d3f565/|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>
While race had only been subliminally addressed in the criminal trial,<ref name="integrated"/> Cabey's civil-trial attorneys explicitly argued that Goetz had been motivated by race.<ref name="Gladwell Different"/> Goetz admitted to previous use of racial language and to smoking PCP-laced marijuana during the 1980s.<ref name="haberman"/><ref>{{cite news|work=Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/4/27/sizzle-the-bacon-pthis-week-was/ |title=Sizzle the Bacon|first=David W.|last=Brown|date=April 27, 1996|access-date=March 8, 2023|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308161538/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/4/27/sizzle-the-bacon-pthis-week-was/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1996-04-16">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/16/nyregion/fund-linked-to-nra-gave-20000-for-goetz-s-defense.html |title=Fund Linked to N.R.A. Gave $20,000 For Goetz's Defense |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 16, 1996 |last=Hoffman |first=Jan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160830203558/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/16/nyregion/fund-linked-to-nra-gave-20000-for-goetz-s-defense.html |archive-date=August 30, 2016}}</ref> For the defense, Jimmy Breslin testified that, in a 1985 hospital-bed interview, Cabey, while denying his own involvement, said that Allen, Canty, and Ramseur intended to rob Goetz because he looked like "easy bait," but Cabey's attorneys pointed out that Cabey had suffered brain damage prior to the interview and that Breslin's column described Cabey as "confused."<ref name="NYT_19960418">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/18/nyregion/goetz-defense-opens-calls-jimmy-breslin-and-a-psychiatrist-thencloses.html |title=Goetz Defense Opens, Calls Jimmy Breslin and a Psychiatrist, Then Closes |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 18, 1996 |last=Hoffman |first=Jan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307090647/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/18/nyregion/goetz-defense-opens-calls-jimmy-breslin-and-a-psychiatrist-thencloses.html |archive-date=March 7, 2017 |ref=CITEREFHoffman1996Apr18}}</ref>
The jury found that Goetz had acted recklessly and had deliberately inflicted emotional distress on Cabey. Jurors awarded Cabey $43 million; $18 million for pain and suffering and $25 million in punitive damages.<ref name="NYT_1996-04-24$43m">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/24/nyregion/bronx-jury-orders-goetz-to-pay-man-he-paralyzed-43-million.html |title=Bronx Jury Orders Goetz to Pay Man He Paralyzed $43 Million |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 24, 1996 |last=Nossiter |first=Adam |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305055741/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/24/nyregion/bronx-jury-orders-goetz-to-pay-man-he-paralyzed-43-million.html |archive-date=March 5, 2016 }}</ref> Goetz subsequently filed for bankruptcy, saying that legal expenses had left him almost penniless. A United States bankruptcy court judge ruled that the $43 million judgment was {{Define|nondischargeable|a type of debt that cannot be eliminated through bankruptcy. Such debts usually include, but are not limited to: student loans; most federal, state, and local taxes; and child support and alimony}}.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/02/nyregion/bankrupt-goetz-still-owes-victim.html |title=Bankrupt, Goetz Still Owes Victim |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 2, 1996 |last=Holloway |first=Lynette |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403013229/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/02/nyregion/bankrupt-goetz-still-owes-victim.html |archive-date=April 3, 2016 }}</ref>
Because Goetz was only "sporadically employed as an electrical engineering consultant," the expectation was that 10% of Goetz's income for the next 20 years would be garnished.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Jonathan|last=Markovitz|journal=University of California Irvine Law Review|volume=5|pages=873–934|url=https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1221&context=ucilr|title="A Spectacle of Slavery Unwilling to Die": Curbing Reliance on Racial Stereotyping in Self-Defense Cases|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=March 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320191749/https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1221&context=ucilr|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|902 n.159}} Stephen Somerstein, one of Cabey's attorneys, expressed some optimism that a portion of any book deal Goetz signed could contribute to the judgment.<ref>{{cite news|via=Deseret News|url=https://www.deseret.com/1996/6/13/19248368/1-debt-s-likely-to-pursue-goetz-for-the-rest-of-his-life|title=Debt Likely to Pursue Goetz for the Rest of His Life|agency=Associated Press|date=June 13, 1996|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=March 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307150132/https://www.deseret.com/1996/6/13/19248368/1-debt-s-likely-to-pursue-goetz-for-the-rest-of-his-life|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2000, Kuby told reporters that he had hired a firm specializing in debt collection to pursue Goetz, but he noted that Goetz "appear[ed] to be living in voluntary squalor."<ref name="kelley2000"/> Asked in 2004 whether he was making payments on the judgment, Goetz responded "I don't think I've paid a penny on that", and referred any questions on the subject to his attorney.<ref name="CNN_Grace"/>
==== Goetz's defamation claims ==== In 1990, Goetz filed a defamation action against Cabey; his mother, Sherry; and his attorneys, Kunstler and Kuby.<ref>{{cite web|title=Goetz Files Libel Suit And Assails Lawyers|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/10/nyregion/metro-datelines-goetz-files-libel-suit-and-assails-lawyers.html|date=January 10, 1990|access-date=February 24, 2023|archive-date=February 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224164449/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/10/nyregion/metro-datelines-goetz-files-libel-suit-and-assails-lawyers.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The suit was dismissed.<ref>{{cite web|title=Judge Dismisses Goetz Libel Suit Against Lawyer|work=Orlando Sentinel|date=July 11, 1990|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1990-07-11-9007110543-story.html|access-date=February 24, 2023|archive-date=February 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224164451/https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1990-07-11-9007110543-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1994, Goetz filed another defamation action related to ''My Life as a Radical Lawyer'', a book by Kunstler, published by Carol Communications, Inc.<ref name="Touro">{{cite journal| author= <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|year= 1996| title= Freedom of Speech and Press: ''Goetz v. Kunstler''| url= https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3040&context=lawreview| journal= Touro Law Review| volume= 12| pages= 976–81| access-date= February 24, 2023| archive-date= February 24, 2023| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230224164450/https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3040&context=lawreview| url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="UPI Goetz v. Kunstler">{{cite web|work=United Press International|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/10/04/Subway-gunman-Goetz-sues-attorney/8166781243200/|title=Subway Gunman Goetz Sues Attorney|date=October 4, 1994}}</ref> Amongst other claims, Goetz objected to the book's description of him as a "paranoid" "murderous vigilante" who had "developed a hatred for blacks."<ref name="Goetz v. Kunstler">{{cite court |litigants=Goetz v. Kunstler|vol=164 |reporter=Misc. 2d |opinion=557 |pinpoint=559—65|court=N.Y. Sup. Ct.|year=1995 |url=https://casetext.com/case/goetz-v-kunstler|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224164451/https://casetext.com/case/goetz-v-kunstler|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 24, 2023}}</ref><ref name="UPI Goetz v. Kunstler"/> Goetz specifically objected that the book's description of him as a racist hurt his "good name, reputation, feelings, and public standing."<ref name="UPI Goetz v. Kunstler"/> The court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, finding that the statements complained of were, varyingly, protected opinion (rather than actionable fact statements), not defamatory, or substantially true.<ref name="Touro"/><ref name="Goetz v. Kunstler"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Delgado |first1=Richard|author-link1=Richard Delgado|last2=Stefancic|first2=Jean |author-link2=Jean Stefancic|date=2019 |title=Understanding Words That Wound |chapter=11 |publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref>
== Public reaction == The shootings initially drew considerable support from the public.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-07" /><ref name="NEWS_2001-11-08">{{cite news |last=Maeder |first=Jay |date=November 8, 2001 |title=Quality Of Life The Subway Vigilante, December 1984 – January 1985 Chapter 463 |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2001/11/08/quality-of-life-the-subway-vigilante-december-1984-january-1985-chapter-463/ |access-date=March 21, 2025 |newspaper=New York Daily News|issn=2692-1251}}</ref> A Daily News-WABC-TV poll released in January 1985 showed 49 percent of the 515 New Yorkers questioned approved of Goetz's actions, while only 31 percent disapproved.<ref>{{cite news|work=United Press International|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/01/06/Mayor-says-subway-shooting-can-produce-good/8271473835600/|title=Mayor Says Subway Shooting Can Produce Good|last=Pessin|first=Esther|date=January 6, 1985|access-date=March 28, 2023|archive-date=May 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504235953/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/01/06/Mayor-says-subway-shooting-can-produce-good/8271473835600/|url-status=live}}</ref> A special hotline set up by police to seek information was swamped by calls supporting the shooter and calling him a hero.<ref name="NYT_1984-12-30">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/30/weekinreview/the-little-known-world-of-the-vigilante.html |title=The Little-Known World Of The Vigilante |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 30, 1984 |last=Sanger |first=David E.|author-link=David E. Sanger |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206133823/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/30/weekinreview/the-little-known-world-of-the-vigilante.html |archive-date=February 6, 2017}}</ref><ref name="TIME_1985-01-25"/> In March, Morgenthau reported that the letters his office received were running 3 to 1 in Goetz's favor.<ref name="TIME_1985-03-25">{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964133,00.html |title=New Evidence: Reopening the Goetz Case |magazine=Time |date=March 25, 1985 |first1=Richard|last1=Stengel|author-link=Richard Stengel|first2=Marcia|last2=Gauger |first3=John F.|last3=Stacks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109180702/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964133,00.html |archive-date=November 9, 2007 }}</ref> The same month, a Gallup poll interviewing 1,009 adults found that 57% of respondents approved of Goetz's shootings and two-thirds said that Goetz had acted in self defense.<ref name="UPI Gallup Poll">{{cite news|work=United Press International|title=A Majority of Americans Support Subway Vigilante Bernhard Goetz...|date=March 3, 1985|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/03/03/A-majority-of-Americans-support-subway-vigilante-Bernhard-Goetz/9249478674000/|access-date=March 28, 2023|archive-date=February 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212233624/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/03/03/A-majority-of-Americans-support-subway-vigilante-Bernhard-Goetz/9249478674000/|url-status=live}}</ref> However, compared to the January poll, Goetz's support among African Americans had dipped considerably: while only 36% of Black respondents disapproved of his actions in the January poll, 53% reported disapproval in the March poll.<ref name="UPI Gallup Poll"/> Questions of what impact race had on Goetz's thinking, the public's reaction, and the verdict by the (predominately White) criminal jury became hotly debated.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt41p0f0zc/qt41p0f0zc_noSplash_f498d6d447d91fef32accd452e8cadd4.pdf?t=rdiswh|pages=21–105|title=The New ''Dread'', Part I: The Judicial Overthrow of the Reasonableness Standard in Police Shooting Cases|first=Kindaka J.|last=Sanders|year=2022|journal=Criminal Justice Law Review|volume=21|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=March 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230303203052/https://escholarship.org/content/qt41p0f0zc/qt41p0f0zc_noSplash_f498d6d447d91fef32accd452e8cadd4.pdf?t=rdiswh|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|49}}<ref name="cs monitor">{{cite web|work=The Christian Science Monitor|title=Controversy and Justice in the Case of Bernard Goetz|first=Jim|last=Bencivenga|date=July 14, 1988|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0714/dbbern.html|access-date=March 6, 2023|archive-date=March 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306203250/https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0714/dbbern.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that, during the criminal trial, demonstrators outside the courtroom chanted "Bernhard Goetz, you can't hide; we charge you with genocide."<ref name="Los Angeles Times February 7, 1985">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-07-mn-5137-story.html |title=Bail Slashed for Man Who Shot Four on Subway |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=February 7, 1985 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120127212645/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-02-07/news/mn-5137_1_bernhard-goetz |archive-date=January 27, 2012 }}</ref>
Initial sources differed in reporting the sequence of shots fired, timing of shots, whether Cabey was shot once or twice, and whether any of the men Goetz shot were armed. Some reports, picking up on Goetz's statement to the police, suggested that Cabey had been shot twice,<ref name="NYT_1985-02-28" /> but later reporting revealed that he had been shot only once, in the left side.<ref name="NYT_1996-04-26">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/26/opinion/c-correction-003743.html |title=Correction |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 26, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306190354/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/26/opinion/c-correction-003743.html |archive-date=March 6, 2016 }}</ref> Additionally, early reports suggested that the teenagers had approached Goetz carrying "sharpened" screwdrivers;<ref name="retrospective screwdrivers">{{cite web|work=Associated Press News|url=https://apnews.com/article/e449319c84b17a613e23494f38295af7|title=Goetz Jury Asks To See Jacket, Screwdrivers|first=Jerry|last=Schwartz|date=June 15, 1987|quote=After the shootings, there were news reports that the teenagers had approached Goetz with sharpened screwdrivers. However, those reports were later found to be untrue. The tools were not sharpened, and the jury heard testimony that the screwdrivers – two of them carried by Cabey, one by Ramseur – were never taken out of their pockets. [And] Goetz, in taped statements, never once mentioned the screwdrivers or any other weapon ....|access-date=February 24, 2023|archive-date=February 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224170108/https://apnews.com/article/e449319c84b17a613e23494f38295af7|url-status=live |ref=CITEREFSchwartz1987Jun15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Morning Call|title=The Message About Guns Is Very Clear|department=Editorial|date=July 31, 1998|quote=Each of the four thugs had a criminal record, and three were armed with screwdrivers sharpened into daggers.|url=https://www.mcall.com/1998/07/31/the-message-about-guns-is-very-clear/|access-date=February 24, 2023|archive-date=February 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224170108/https://www.mcall.com/1998/07/31/the-message-about-guns-is-very-clear/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8601/ |title=The Joy of Goetz |journal=New York |last=Crouch |first=Stanley|author-link=Stanley Crouch|date=April 7, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080902011058/http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8601/ |archive-date=September 2, 2008 }}</ref> those reports, too, were found to be false: The screwdrivers—Cabey carried two and Ramseur carried one—were not sharpened and, based on the available testimony, were not removed from Cabey's or Ramseur's pockets<ref name="retrospective screwdrivers"/><ref name="Lesly" />—no witnesses reported seeing screwdrivers, and Goetz repeatedly denied he was threatened with them.<ref name="retrospective screwdrivers"/><ref name="Lesly" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Murray|first=Andrew|date=November 11, 2021|title=Kyle Rittenhouse Trial 'A Sham at Best,' Subway Vigilante Bernie Goetz Says: 'Satisfy a Mob'|url=https://www.foxnews.com/us/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-sham-subway-vigilante-bernie-goetz|access-date=January 31, 2022|publisher=Fox News|language=en-US|archive-date=January 30, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130162228/https://www.foxnews.com/us/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-sham-subway-vigilante-bernie-goetz|url-status=live}}</ref> When Canty testified at Goetz's criminal trial, he said they were to be used to break into video arcade change boxes and not as weapons.<ref name="NYT_1987-05-02">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/02/nyregion/goetz-shooting-victim-says-youths-weren-t-threatening.html |title=Goetz Shooting Victim Says Youths Weren't Threatening |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 2, 1987 |last=Johnson |first=Kirk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104043628/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/02/nyregion/goetz-shooting-victim-says-youths-weren-t-threatening.html |archive-date=November 4, 2017 |ref=Johnson1987May02}}</ref>
Supporters viewed Goetz as a hero for standing up to his attackers and defending himself in an environment where the police were increasingly viewed as ineffective in combating crime.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-07">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/07/nyregion/angry-citizens-in-many-cities-supporting-goetz.html |title=Angry Citizens In Many Cities Supporting Goetz |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 7, 1985 |last=Fein |first=Esther B. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128134910/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/07/nyregion/angry-citizens-in-many-cities-supporting-goetz.html |archive-date=November 28, 2017 }}</ref> The Guardian Angels, a volunteer patrol group of mostly Black and Hispanic teenagers,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/10/nyregion/46th-street-restaurant-row-starts-guardian-angel-patrol.html |title=46th Street 'Restaurant Row' Starts Guardian Angel Patrol |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 10, 1988 |last=Butterfield |first=Fox |author-link=Fox Butterfield|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310092734/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/10/nyregion/46th-street-restaurant-row-starts-guardian-angel-patrol.html |archive-date=March 10, 2016 }}</ref> collected thousands of dollars from subway riders toward a legal defense fund for Goetz.<ref name="TIME_1985-01-25"/> The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a right-leaning civil rights organization, supported Goetz.<ref>{{cite news |title=Goetz Jury Did Not Endorse Vigilantism |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |first=Rick|last=Hampton |date=May 18, 1987}}</ref> CORE's director, Roy Innis (who had lost two of his sons to inner-city gun violence and would later be elected to the executive board of the NRA<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16324652&ft=1&f=5 |title='Ricochet' Goes Behind Scenes of Gun Lobby |date=November 15, 2007 |publisher=NPR |access-date=November 15, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629195130/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16324652&ft=1&f=5 |archive-date=June 29, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nrawinningteam.com/bios99/innis.html |title=Roy Innis Re-Elected To NRA Board |work=NRAwinningteam.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013003459/http://www.nrawinningteam.com/bios99/innis.html |archive-date=October 13, 2007 }}</ref>), offered to raise defense money, saying that Goetz was "the avenger for all of us".<ref name="TIME_1985-01-25">{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,956277,00.html |title=Low Profile for a Legend |magazine=Time |date=January 25, 1985 |first1=John|last1=Leo |author-link1=John Leo|first2=Jack E.|last2=White |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102081858/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956277-1,00.html |archive-date=November 2, 2012 }}{{subscription required}}</ref> A legal group founded by the NRA—the Firearms Civil Rights Legal Defense Fund—donated $20,000 to Goetz's defense.<ref name="NYT_1996-04-16"/> Harvard Professor of Government James Q. Wilson explained the broad sentiment by saying, "It may simply indicate that there are no more liberals on the crime and law-and-order issue in New York City, because they've all been mugged."<ref name="TIME_1985-01-25"/> Professor Stephen L. Carter bemoaned the public's initial reaction to the shooting, arguing, "The tragedy of the Goetz case is that a public barely aware of the facts was rooting for him to get away with it. The tragedy is that a public eager to identify transgressors in advance decided from the start that Mr. Goetz was a hero and that his black victims deserved what they got."<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Yale Law Journal|title=When Victims Happen to Be Black|first=Stephen L.|last=Carter|author-link=Stephen L. Carter|pages=420–47|url=https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/1530/When_Victims_Happen_to_be_Black.pdf?sequence=2|volume=97|issue=3|doi=10.2307/796412|year=1988|jstor=796412 |access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=March 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230303203054/https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/1530/When_Victims_Happen_to_be_Black.pdf?sequence=2|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|424}}
While race was never explicitly mentioned at the criminal trial,<ref name="integrated">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://ristrophcriminallaw.lawbooks.cali.org/chapter/chapter-10-affirm-defenses/|title=Criminal Law: An Integrated Approach|first=Alice|last=Ristroph|date=August 8, 2022|chapter=Chapter Ten: Affirmative Defenses|access-date=March 3, 2023|archive-date=March 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230303203053/https://ristrophcriminallaw.lawbooks.cali.org/chapter/chapter-10-affirm-defenses/|url-status=live}}</ref> Professor George P. Fletcher argued that Goetz's criminal-defense team—which referred to the men Goetz shot as "savages", "predators", and "vultures"<ref name="integrated"/>—made a "covert appeal to racial bias", which, he argued "came out most dramatically in [a re-enactment] of the shooting."<ref name="Fletcher 1990"/>{{rp|206–07}} In the courtroom re-enactment, four "fit and muscular" Black members of the Guardian Angels were asked to portray the four teenagers Goetz shot and surround Goetz.<ref name="Fletcher 1990"/>{{rp|206–07}} Professor Bennett Capers agreed that the use of the four "large black men" to stand in for the "four black youths" was, effectively, a "backdoor race-ing".<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Notre Dame Law Review|title=Evidence Without Rules|first=Bennett|last=Capers|year=2018|volume=94|pages=867–907|url=https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4826&context=ndlr|access-date=March 7, 2023|archive-date=December 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218201034/https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4826&context=ndlr|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|887}} As to the criminal verdict, Benjamin Hooks, director of the NAACP, called the outcome "inexcusable", adding, "It was proven—according to his own statements—that Goetz did the shooting and went far beyond the realm of self-defense. There was no provocation for what he did." Representative Floyd Flake agreed, saying, "I think that if a black had shot four whites, the cry for the death penalty would have been almost automatic."<ref name="NYT_1987-06-18">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/18/nyregion/blacks-see-goetz-verdict-as-blow-to-race-relations.html |title=Blacks See Goetz Verdict As Blow To Race Relations |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 18, 1987 |last=Pitt |first=David E. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114180653/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/18/nyregion/blacks-see-goetz-verdict-as-blow-to-race-relations.html |archive-date=November 14, 2016 }}</ref>
United States Attorney Rudolph Giuliani met with black political and religious leaders calling for a federal civil-rights investigation.<ref name="NYT_1985-01-30">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/30/nyregion/us-attorney-meets-with-blacks-over-request-for-inquiry-on-goetz.html |title=U.S. Attorney Meets With Blacks Over Request For Inquiry On Goetz |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 30, 1985 |last=Chambers |first=Marcia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171127172726/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/30/nyregion/us-attorney-meets-with-blacks-over-request-for-inquiry-on-goetz.html |archive-date=November 27, 2017 |ref=Chambers1985Jan30}}</ref> C. Vernon Mason, an attorney and spokesperson for the group, said, "We have come to the Federal Government as black people traditionally have done to seek redress when it is clear that state and local authorities have either failed to act or are incapable of acting."<ref name="NYT_1985-01-30"/> After an investigation, Giuliani ultimately determined that Goetz had acted out of fear, which he distinguished from a "racial motivation".<ref>{{cite news|work=United Press International|title=Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani Monday Ruled Out|last=Cates|first=Ellan|date=February 25, 1985|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/02/25/Manhattan-US-Attorney-Rudolph-Giuliani-Monday-ruled-out-a/7308478155600/}}</ref><ref name="NYT_1987-06-20">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/20/nyregion/naacp-leader-seeks-federal-case-on-goetz.html |title=N.A.A.C.P. Leader Seeks Federal Case On Goetz |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 20, 1987 |last=Lyall |first=Sarah |author-link=Sarah Lyall|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104122642/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/20/nyregion/naacp-leader-seeks-federal-case-on-goetz.html |archive-date=November 4, 2017 }}</ref> In a 2007 interview with Stone Phillips of ''Dateline NBC'', Goetz admitted that his fear may have been enhanced due to the fact that the four men he shot were black.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stone Phillips: 15 Years of Dateline |last=Phillips |first=Stone |author-link=Stone Phillips |publisher=NBC News |date=July 2, 2007 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19562622 |access-date=November 17, 2019 |archive-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523141535/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19562622 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Subsequent developments== After reaching an all-time peak in 1990, crime in New York City dropped dramatically through the rest of the 1990s.<ref name=crimedrop>{{cite conference |first1=Patrick A. |last1=Langan |first2=Matthew R.|last2=Durose |title=The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City |work=2003 International Conference on Crime |date=December 3–5, 2003 |location=Rome, Italy |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/322928/Langan-rel<!-- |url=http://www.istat.it/istat/eventi/2003/perunasocieta/relazioni/Langan_rel.pdf--> |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430115832/http://www.scribd.com/doc/322928/Langan-rel |archive-date=April 30, 2009 }}</ref><!-- Subject matter expert on an uncontroversial claim --> New York City crime rates by 2014 were comparable to those of the early 1960s.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://gothamist.com/2015/01/01/nyc_murder_rate_drops_to_new_histor.php |title=NYC Murder Rate Drops To New Historic Low In 2014 |date=January 1, 2015 |first=Jen |last=Chung |newspaper=The Gothamist |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150118044924/http://gothamist.com/2015/01/01/nyc_murder_rate_drops_to_new_histor.php |archive-date=January 18, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/nyregion/new-york-city-murders-fall-but-the-police-arent-celebrating.html |work=The New York Times |first1=J. David |last1=Goodman |first2=Al |last2=Baker |title=Murders in New York Drop to a Record Low, But Officers Aren't Celebrating |date=December 31, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225071208/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/nyregion/new-york-city-murders-fall-but-the-police-arent-celebrating.html |archive-date=February 25, 2017 }}</ref>
Darrell Cabey fell into a coma after the shooting; he suffered irreversible brain damage and was paralyzed from the waist down.<ref name="McShane 1995">{{cite news|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|title=For One Goetz Victim, Suffering Won't End : South Bronx: Youth Was Immobilized from the Waist Down, Fell into a Coma, Suffered Irreversible Brain Damage. Now 29, He Has the Mental Capacity of a Third-Grader.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-08-mn-17496-story.html|last=McShane|first=Larry|date=January 8, 1995|access-date=March 10, 2023|archive-date=March 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310172225/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-08-mn-17496-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1985 an outstanding armed robbery charge against him was dropped when the Bronx district attorney determined he had the capacity of an 8-year-old.<ref name="McShane 1995"/> Goetz accused Cabey of exaggerating his injuries.<ref name="McShane 1995"/> Goetz questioned Cabey as to his injuries in two depositions and was unable to elicit an answer longer than a single sentence; when asked, Cabey denied having previously heard the name "Bernie Goetz".<ref name="McShane 1995"/>
Troy Canty entered drug-rehabilitation and vocational-training programs.<ref name="Canty NYT">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 14, 1989|title=The Teen-Agers Goetz Shot: 4 Years Marked by Struggle|first=Don|last=Terry|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/14/nyregion/the-teen-agers-goetz-shot-4-years-marked-by-struggle.html|access-date=March 10, 2023|archive-date=March 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310172226/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/14/nyregion/the-teen-agers-goetz-shot-4-years-marked-by-struggle.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One of Canty's attorneys, Scott H. Greenfield, reported that Canty planned to attend culinary school.<ref name="Canty NYT"/>
In March 1985, James Ramseur reported to police that two men apparently hired by Goetz kidnapped and attempted to murder him.<ref name=hoax>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/27/nyregion/a-man-goetz-shot-is-charged-with-faking-own-abduction.html |title=A Man Goetz Shot Is Charged With Faking Own Abduction |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 27, 1985 |last=Raab |first=Selwyn |access-date=April 15, 2012 |archive-date=July 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729121800/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/27/nyregion/a-man-goetz-shot-is-charged-with-faking-own-abduction.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The following day, after detectives played back to Ramseur the emergency 911 recording reporting the kidnapping, Ramseur admitted it was his voice on the call and to fabricating the report. Ramseur explained it was merely to test police response when a Black person was a crime victim, and was not prosecuted for this hoax. Ramseur was convicted in 1986 of the 1985 rape and robbery of a young pregnant woman.<ref name="Ramseur death">{{cite web | last=Weber | first=Bruce | title=James Ramseur, Victim of Bernhard Goetz Subway Shooting, Dies at 45 | website=The New York Times | date=December 24, 2011 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/nyregion/james-ramseur-victim-of-bernhard-goetz-subway-shooting-dies-at-45.html | access-date=June 25, 2018 | archive-date=December 25, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111225010512/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/nyregion/james-ramseur-victim-of-bernhard-goetz-subway-shooting-dies-at-45.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Conditionally released in 2002, Ramseur returned to prison for a parole violation in 2005; he finished his sentence in July 2010.<ref name="Ramseur death"/> On December 22, 2011, the shooting's 27th anniversary, James Ramseur died at age 45 of a drug overdose in an apparent suicide.<ref name="Ramseur death"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2011/12/subway-vigilante-victim-killed-himself.html|magazine=New York|last=Coscarelli|first=Joe|title='Subway Vigilante' Victim Killed Himself on Anniversary of Shooting|date=December 23, 2011|access-date=March 10, 2023|archive-date=March 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310172227/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2011/12/subway-vigilante-victim-killed-himself.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1989, Barry Allen was charged with robbing a 58-year-old man of $54.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/07/nyregion/goetz-victim-held-in-mugging.html|date=March 7, 1989|title=Goetz Victim Held in Mugging|access-date=March 13, 2023|archive-date=March 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311200124/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/07/nyregion/goetz-victim-held-in-mugging.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1991, he was convicted and sentenced to 3.5 to 7 years.<ref>{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|title=3 Other Goetz Victims Move On, Two to Prison|date=January 8, 1995|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-08-mn-17495-story.html|access-date=March 12, 2023|archive-date=March 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312214202/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-08-mn-17495-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Goetz achieved celebrity status after the shooting.<ref name="Schwirtz 2013">{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Bernard Goetz, Man in '84 Subway Shooting, Faces Marijuana Charges|date=November 2, 2013|last=Schwirtz|first=Michael|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/nyregion/bernard-goetz-man-in-84-subway-shooting-faces-marijuana-charges.html|access-date=March 26, 2023|archive-date=March 26, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326163303/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/nyregion/bernard-goetz-man-in-84-subway-shooting-faces-marijuana-charges.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Bernhard Goetz and the Roots of Kyle Rittenhouse's Celebrity on the Right|last=Beumer|first=Pia|date=June 15, 2022|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/15/bernhard-goetz-roots-kyle-rittenhouses-celebrity-right/|access-date=March 26, 2023|archive-date=July 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706185347/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/15/bernhard-goetz-roots-kyle-rittenhouses-celebrity-right/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2001, he unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York City; amongst other issues, Goetz advocated for a vegetarian menu in New York City schools, jails, and hospitals.<ref>{{cite news|magazine=The New Yorker|title=A Jolly Green Giant|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/11/18/a-jolly-green-giant|last=Halpern|first=Jake|date=November 10, 2002|access-date=March 27, 2023|archive-date=March 27, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327151710/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/11/18/a-jolly-green-giant|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="CBS pot">{{cite news|publisher=CBS News|title=Bernhard Goetz Arrested After Allegedly Selling Pot To Undercover Cop|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/bernhard-goetz-arrested-after-allegedly-selling-pot-to-undercover-cop/|date=November 2, 2013|access-date=March 27, 2023|archive-date=March 27, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327151710/https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/bernhard-goetz-arrested-after-allegedly-selling-pot-to-undercover-cop/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2004, Goetz was interviewed by Nancy Grace on ''Larry King Live'', where he stated his actions were good for New York City and forced the city to address crime.<ref name="CNN_Grace">{{cite news |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/17/lkl.01.html |title=Interview with 'Subway Vigilante' Bernhard Goetz |work=Larry King Live |date=December 17, 2004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212123753/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/17/lkl.01.html |archive-date=December 12, 2007 }}</ref> In 2005, Goetz unsuccessfully ran for public advocate;<ref name="CBS pot"/> he described the subway shooting on his campaign website.<ref>{{cite web | title=Bernie Goetz for Public Advocate | website=Bernie Goetz for Public Advocate | url=http://bernieformayor.com/bioletters.html | access-date=June 13, 2024}}</ref> In late 2013, Goetz was arrested for allegedly attempting to sell marijuana to an undercover police officer.<ref name="Schwirtz 2013"/><ref name="CBS pot"/> After Goetz's attorney moved for dismissal on speedy-trial grounds, a judge agreed that prosecutors took 14 days too long to prosecute the case, and it was dismissed in September 2014.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/bernie-goetz-pot-dealing-case-tossed-article-1.1934786|title=Bernie Goetz Has Pot Dealing Case Tossed Because Prosecutors Took Too Long: Judge|last=Paddock|first=Barry|date=September 10, 2014|newspaper=New York Daily News|issn=2692-1251|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=September 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910190251/http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/bernie-goetz-pot-dealing-case-tossed-article-1.1934786|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2023, African-American civil rights leader Al Sharpton and former assistant district attorney Mark Bederow compared the Goetz case to the killing of Jordan Neely.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/subway-chokehold-new-york-87807c40386707ed665cfbfb339e08f9 |title=Charges in NYC Chokehold Death May Hinge on 'Reasonableness' |date=May 6, 2023 |last1=Offenhartz |first1=Jake |publisher=AP News |access-date=May 8, 2023 |archive-date=May 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230508021314/https://apnews.com/article/subway-chokehold-new-york-87807c40386707ed665cfbfb339e08f9 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/03/jordan-neely-death-new-york-city-subway |title=Outrage in New York After the Killing of Jordan Neely on a Subway Train |date=May 4, 2023 |last1=Helmore |first1=Edward |work=The Guardian |access-date=May 8, 2023 |archive-date=May 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504005924/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/03/jordan-neely-death-new-york-city-subway |url-status=live }}</ref>
==In popular culture== Bernie Goetz is mentioned in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start The Fire".<ref>{{Cite EBO|title=All 119 References in "We Didn't Start the Fire," Explained|url=https://www.britannica.com/list/all-119-references-in-we-didnt-start-the-fire-explained|access-date=November 27, 2024|last=Matthias|first=Meg}}</ref>
In the 30 Rock episode "Subway Hero," Jack refers to Dennis Duffy as "the greatest New Yorker since Bernie Goetz."
The protagonist of the 2019 film ''Joker'' is partly inspired by Goetz.<ref>{{cite web|first=Bill|last=Desowitz|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2019/10/joker-joaquin-phoenix-cesar-romero-bernard-goetz-1202179438/|title='Joker': How Cesar Romero and Bernhard Goetz Inspired Joaquin Phoenix's Look|website=Indiewire|publisher=Penske Media Corporation|location=Los Angeles, California|date=October 7, 2019|access-date=January 7, 2020|archive-date=October 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007235353/https://www.indiewire.com/2019/10/joker-joaquin-phoenix-cesar-romero-bernard-goetz-1202179438/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name = "Joker">{{cite news|first=Alex|last=Godfrey|date=October 8, 2019|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/joker-true-crime-story-subway-vigilante-bernhard-goetz/|title=The 'Hero' Who'd Had Enough: How Subway Vigilante Bernhard Goetz Inspired Joker|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=London, England|access-date=January 7, 2020|archive-date=December 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217191417/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/joker-true-crime-story-subway-vigilante-bernhard-goetz/|url-status=live}}</ref> Todd Phillips, who wrote, produced and directed the film, grew up in New York City and remembered the 1984 subway shooting from his youth.<ref name = "Joker" />
The board game ''The Subway Vigilante'' was inspired by the shooting, and sold 40,000 copies.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kraft |first=Joy |date=9 August 1987 |title=Goetz and Contras are only a game to some |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/dover-times-reporter-aug-09-1987-p-35/ |work=Dover Times Reporter |pages=35}}</ref>
==See also== * 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting * 2022 New York City Subway attack * Vigilantism * Self-defense * List of shootings in New York * ''Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage'' * ''Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial that Divided the Nation''
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Roehrenbeck, Carol A. ''People Vs. Goetz: The Summations and the Charges to the Jury''. ({{ISBN|0-89941-657-8}}). * {{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/25/nyregion/callers-support-subway-gunman.html |title=Callers Support Subway Gunman |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 25, 1984 |last=Sanger |first=David E. |access-date=February 4, 2017 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305134537/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/25/nyregion/callers-support-subway-gunman.html |url-status=live |ref=CITEREFSanger1984Dec25}} * Williams, Elliot. ''Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation''. New York: Penguin, 2026. {{ISBN|978-0-593-83370-4}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|1249570|Bernhard Goetz}} * [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/ms3152_crane_goetz/ Justice Stephen G. Crane Papers on the Bernhard Goetz Trial and Other Cases, 1981–2000, MS 3152], at the [https://www.nyhistory.org/library New-York Historical Society].
{{Mass shootings in the United States in the 1980s and before}} {{New York City Subway}} {{subject bar|d=y|q=Bernhard Goetz|q-search=Bernhard Goetz}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York City Subway shooting, 1984}} Category:1980s crimes in New York City Category:1980s in Manhattan Category:1984 crimes in the United States Category:1984 in New York City Category:1984 mass shootings in the United States Category:African-American history in New York City Category:African-American-related controversies Category:Controversies in New York (state) Category:Crimes in Manhattan Category:December 1984 in the United States Category:Mass shootings in New York City Category:New York City Subway crimes Category:Non-fatal shootings in the United States