‘Death Wish’ Suspect Held : Victim of 1981 Mugging Admits Subway Shootings

A middle-aged Manhattan man sought in the “vigilante” shooting of four youths who had harassed him and demanded $5 in a subway car nine days ago surrendered to police Monday in New Hampshire.

Police said the man, Bernhard Hugo Goetz, 37, drove up to the police station in Concord, N.H., about 12:45 p.m., walked in the front door and told the duty officer that he wanted to turn himself in.

“He indicated he was the individual responsible for the subway shooting,” Concord Police Chief David Walchak said in a telephone interview.

New York City authorities said that Goetz had been mugged by three youths in Lower Manhattan three years ago and had applied for a pistol permit shortly after. The permit was denied by police.

The subway shootings, which were likened to the 1974 film “Death Wish,” drew national attention and created bitter controversy here. More than 1,500 New Yorkers called police after the Dec. 22 shooting to offer sympathy and praise for the gunman, while others denounced the vigilante-type violence. The four youths remained hospitalized Monday, including one now paralyzed from the waist down.

Police said Goetz was not charged, pending his extradition to Manhattan. Goetz waived extradition, and an assistant district attorney and two New York City detectives arrived in Concord, about 280 miles north of Manhattan, Monday evening to interview him and bring him back.

New York police said Goetz has no police record, is divorced and works at home as a self-employed electrical engineer.

Resembles Sketch

The police said they had been searching for Goetz since Wednesday after a caller told them that Goetz owned a pistol and resembled a police artist’s sketch of the gunman. One of Goetz’s neighbors, who asked not to be identified, said police left a note in Goetz’s door saying they wanted to speak to him.

“He was the one suspect we were working on,” said Alice McGillion, deputy New York police commissioner.

Several neighbors in his 17-story, yellow-brick Upper Greenwich Village apartment house described Goetz, whom they called “Bernie,” as “nervous” and seemingly eccentric.

‘Odd Sometimes’

“He was odd sometimes,” recalled Alex Papanastasiou, a 29-year-old microfilm technician who lives down the ninth-floor brown-carpeted hallway from Goetz. “You’d bump into him in the elevator and I’d say hello and he’d move to the other side of the elevator and start laughing. You’d say, ‘How’s the weather,’ and he’d start laughing.”

Papanastasiou said he met Goetz carrying a small bag on the elevator early Sunday afternoon. “I asked him if he was ready for New Year’s, and he waited a second and said, “Not really,’ ” he said.

Another neighbor, who declined to give her name, said Goetz was “a little eccentric, a little nervous.” But German Brito, doorman in the building, said Goetz had lived in the building for about six years and was “a very nice guy.”

According to New York police, the subway shooter opened fire with a .38-caliber pistol after four youths harassed him in the subway car and one of the youths asked him for $5. The gunman reportedly told the youth, “I have $5 for each of you,” before firing. Two of the youths were hit in the back, apparently as they tried to run.

Sharpened Screwdrivers

All four had arrest records, and three carried long, sharpened screwdrivers in their pockets, police said.

Concord Police Lt. Don Callahan said Goetz gave an account of the shooting that “was found to be consistent” with the account provided by New York police. He said Goetz, a trim, clean-shaven man with blue eyes, blond hair and wire-rim glasses, also “closely matched the description” published by police after the shooting.

It was not immediately clear why Goetz, who was born in Queens, N.Y., drove to New Hampshire to turn himself in. Callahan said Goetz drove into Concord in a gray Chevrolet that he had rented in New York and had come via Vermont.

“We assume he knew we were looking for him and he took off,” New York police spokesman Joseph McConville said.

1981 Incident

McConville said three youths had assaulted Goetz and had attempted to steal his coat on Jan. 21, 1981, on a street in Lower Manhattan. Police said he applied for a pistol permit later that year, but they denied the permit in 1982 after deciding that his business did not require a weapon.

New York Mayor Edward I. Koch, who earlier had criticized the public response to the shooting, expressed delight at news of the surrender. “Whether he is a victim or a villain will be determined by a grand jury, and ultimately, if there is an indictment, by a trial jury of his peers,” Koch said in a prepared statement. “He will now have an opportunity to tell his story, and all of us await the details.”