1980s 'Subway Vigilante' Shot Four Black Teens Who Asked Him For $5, And He Got Off, Too

For anybody who knows New York City crime history, it's hard not to think of "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz when reading about neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman. Goetz shot four, unarmed black teens, paralyzing one of them, on the subway in 1984. His acquittal of attempted murder after a highly publicized, racially charged trial outraged the public. Goetz, who says he started carrying his gun after getting mugged, claimed the four 18- and 19-year-olds surrounded him on the 2 train in Man...