1984 New York City Subway shooting

1984 New York City Subway shooting
LocationNew York City, New York, U.S.
DateDecember 22, 1984; 39 years ago (1984-12-22)
Attack type
Mass shooting[1]
WeaponSmith & Wesson Model 38
Injured4
MotiveDisputed; Goetz claimed self-defense
ConvictedBernhard Hugo Goetz
Verdict
  • Guilty of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon
  • Not guilty on remaining charges
ConvictionsThird-degree criminal possession of a weapon
Charges
Sentence1 year in jail (released after 8+1⁄2 months)
LitigationGoetz ordered to pay $43 million ($84 million today) to Cabey in civil trial for reckless and deliberate infliction of emotional distress[3]

On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz[a] (/ˈɡɛts/[6]) shot four youths on a New York City Subway train in Manhattan after they allegedly tried to rob him.[7][8][9][10] All four victims survived, though one, Darrell Cabey, was paralyzed and suffered brain damage as a result of his injuries.[11] 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 against Goetz after a civil jury ruled Goetz as liable, equivalent to $84 million today.[11]

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.[9] 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.[12]

  1. ^ Lehrer, Brian (April 13, 2022). "Subway Attack Update". WNYC. Archived from the original on May 1, 2023. Retrieved May 1, 2023. As an article on Gothamist reminds us today, mass shootings in New York City subway history are extremely rare.
    The last biggest one before this was almost 40 years ago, the infamous shooting by that writer named Bernhard Goetz in the 1980s.
  2. ^ "The Trial of Bernhard Goetz: Jury Deliberations".
  3. ^ Beeman, Jon; Lange, Evan. "The Bernhard Goetz Trial: A Chronology".
  4. ^ Gillman, Dorothy (January 7, 1985). "Frontier Judgments". Washington Post.
  5. ^ Kelley, Tina (September 10, 2000). "Still Seeking Payment From Bernard Goetz". New York Times.
  6. ^ Carveth, Rod; Arp, Robert (December 22, 2014). Justified and Philosophy: Shoot First, Think Later. Open Court. ISBN 9780812698886 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Johnson, Kirk (May 20, 1987). "Youth Shot In Subway Says He Didn't Approach Goetz". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT_1987-05-02 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Brooks, Michael (1998). "Stories and Verdicts: Bernhard Goetz and New York in Crisis". College Literature. 25 (1): 77–93. JSTOR 25112354.
  10. ^ Christenson, Ronald, ed. (1991). Political Trials in History: From Antiquity to the Present. Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. pp. 162–163. ISBN 0-88738-406-4.
  11. ^ a b Kelley, Tina (September 10, 2000). "Following up; still seeking payment from Bernard Goetz". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017.
  12. ^ Feldman, Richard (December 22, 2014). "Bernie Goetz 'The Subway Gunman' 30 Years Later". The Huffington Post. New York City: Huffington Post. Archived from the original on July 11, 2015.


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