The Nation - News from May 27, 1987

One of four youths wounded by Bernhard H. Goetz said as he lay wounded on the floor of a subway car that they had intended to rob Goetz, but “the white guy shot us first,” a police officer testified in the trial in New York. The testimony came shortly after state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Crane ruled the jury would descend into the city’s subway system this week to examine a subway car similar to the one in which the shootings occurred. Officer Peter Smith testified that one of the victims, believed to be Troy Canty, made the statement as Smith attempted to aid the wounded teen-agers.