Colin Ferguson opens fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train from New York City, killing 6 and injuring 19. Other train passengers stopped the perpetrator by tackling and holding him down.
Colin Ferguson was a mentally ill man from Jamaica who spent years on the West Coast before coming to New York in 1993. On December 7, he boarded a 5:33 p.m. train out of Penn Station carrying an automatic pistol, and as the train pulled into Garden City, Ferguson began running down the aisle and shooting passengers at random.
Defense attorney William Kunstler initially represented Ferguson, but his strategy of arguing that Ferguson was not responsible due to “Black rage” infuriated even Ferguson himself. After firing Kunstler, Ferguson decided to act as his own lawyer.
In the resulting trial, which took place in January and February 1995, Ferguson opened by claiming that he was not the shooter. He argued that a white man had stolen his gun and shot the commuters, then pinned the crime on Ferguson. But he later changed his story, stating that a man who shared Ferguson’s name and facial features was the real killer.
When Ferguson asked nearly all of the surviving victims, in turn, to identify the killer under oath, they each pinned the blame squarely on him. After the judge denied Ferguson’s request that President Clinton and Governor Cuomo testify, Ferguson decided to forego his own right to testify. On February 17, 1995, the jury convicted Ferguson of 6 counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted murder. He received six life terms.
