Bernie Goetz’s Shooting Victim Found Dead
A man who was shot and wounded by New York subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz was reportedly found dead in a suspected suicide, 27 years to the day since the famous incident.
James Ramseur, now 45, was found in his room in a seedy Bronx motel with two empty bottles of pills by his side, the New York Post reported.
Police suspect Ramseur, who has been in and out of jail in recent years, killed himself, the Daily News reported.
Ramseur and three buddies were riding a downtown No. 2 train when they walked up to the bespectacled Goetz and asked for $5 on December 22, 1984.
The teens said they were only panhandling. Goetz claimed they were trying to rob him, pulled out a gun and opened fire, wounding them.
Frustrated with then-rising crime, some called him a hero. Others said he was racist since all four victims were black.
A jury acquitted Goetz on most charges, although he did serve several months for weapons possession.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO