Infamous ‘Subway Vigilante’ Bernhard Goetz Speaks Out About Daniel Penny’s Chokehold Trial

The one man who’s steadily drawn direct comparisons surrounding last year’s shocking chokehold death of an unarmed Black man on a New York City subway train has broken his silence about the case.

Bernhard Goetz, who local media dubbed “the subway vigilante” after he shot four young Black men at close range on a train in Manhattan nearly 40 years ago, spoke exclusively with the Daily Mail, a right-wing tabloid with a documented history of racism.

The interview was published on the same day that a jury began deliberating the fate of Daniel Penny, a white former Marine who choked Jordan Neely to death last year on a subway train, in a trial that bears eerie parallels with Goetz’s case decades earlier.

At 77 years old, Goetz still clearly harbors animosity toward the criminal justice system that held him accountable for reckless violence that still haunts New York City’s vast underground network of subway train tracks. He’s also still very much as paranoid as he was on that fateful subway train in 1984 if the brief but telling interview with the Daily Mail was any indication.

Goetz compared his own situation to Penny’s and is clearly still resentful for being charged with the vigilante shooting.

“It is BS [bulls***] like many things in New York is BS,’ Goetz said to the Daily Mail before adding later: “This is a BS society and it was BS in my time.”

Apparently, Goetz was unaware he was speaking to a journalist, an indication that the Daily Mail wasn’t forthcoming during the interview.

“I think you sound like a reporter,” Goetz ended up telling the Daily Mail. “That’s right… Go f***k yourself.”

Daniel Penny’s manslaughter trial

To Goetz’s credit, there are certainly similarities between his case and Penny’s.

To recap, Daniel Penny, a white 24-year-old former Marine, was charged with manslaughter and is currently on trial for sneaking up behind Jordan Neely on an F-line subway car in Manhattan on May 1, 2023 and placing the 30-year-old unhoused street performer, who was in the throes of a mental health crisis, into a sprawling chokehold on the floor of the train for at least six straight minutes.

Video footage recorded in the subway car showed at least two men helping Penny hold down Neely, who witnesses said had been screaming that he was hungry and was not afraid to die. Witnesses also confirmed during the trial that Neely was not violent before Penny attacked him. Penny died as a result of the chokehold, according to the autopsy results and a forensic scientist who testified for the prosecution at the trial.

Although Penny was immediately taken in for questioning by the NYPD, police quickly released him without any criminal charges. Amid mounting pressure, it would take nearly two weeks before Penny was finally arrested and leniently charged with manslaughter instead of murder.

Penny is facing nearly 15 years in prison if he’s found guilty.

Bernhard Goetz

Like Penny’s confrontation with Neely, Goetz shot Barry Allen, Troy Canty and Darrell Cabey — all 19 years old —  and James Ramseur, 18, because of a perceived threat. Goetz said he believed the teenagers were trying to mug him and reacted out of self-defense. While none of the teenagers died, Goetz claimed he thought they wanted to rob him when they asked for $5. The four teens maintained they had only been asking subway passengers for money.

Goetz, also like Penny, claimed he wouldn’t change a thing and would do it again if placed in a similar situation. A grand jury heard evidence that included a video confession from Goetz claiming he shot his gun with the intention of killing the teens.

After being charged with four counts of attempted murder, Goetz posted bond and remained free as a grand jury was empaneled by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. But less than a month later, the grand jury declined to indict Goetz for attempted murder and instead only charged him with criminal possession of the gun he used to shoot the teens.

Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan District Attorney at the time, empaneled another grand jury after he presented more evidence in the case that decided to uphold the attempted murder charges. But a judge quickly dismissed those charges by casting doubt on the shooting victims.

The New York Times reported at the time:

Justice Stephen G. Crane of State Supreme Court dismissed the charges on Thursday, citing ”prejudicial error” in a prosecutor’s instructions last March to the second grand jury that heard the case and statements to the grand jury by two of those shot by Mr. Goetz that, he said, now ”strongly appear” to have been perjury. Justice Crane said this had ”severely undermined” the integrity of the grand jury.

After an extensive appeal process, including one court upholding Judge Crane’s move to dismiss the charges, the attempted murder charges were finally reinstated.

In 1987, nearly three years after the subway shooting, Goetz was acquitted of the attempted murder charges and only found guilty of the gun charge.

This is America.

SEE ALSO:

The Killing Of Jordan Neely And Why Police Should Also Be Held To Account

NYPD’s Quick Arrest Of Black Man In ‘Self Defense’ Subway Killing Contrasts With Daniel Penny’s Treatment