Subway ‘Vigilante’ Rejects Offer of Bail

NEW YORK —  Bernhard H. Goetz, who surrendered to police and admitted shooting four youths on the subway, Friday turned down an offer to post his $50,000 bail.

A man who said that he identified with Goetz because he had once been mugged appeared with a $50,000 cashier’s check that was “seemingly bona fide,” Correction Department spokesman Edward Hershey said. The man, who was accompanied by a reporter from the New York Post, identified himself as Jose Gonzalez, a telephone technician, Hershey said.

Goetz, 37, being held on four attempted murder charges in a special unit for endangered or notorious criminals, thanked the would-be benefactor but said: “No thank you. It’s not the way I wish to do it,” according to Hershey.

Goetz’s lawyer, Frank Brenner, said that his client was “in the process of making arrangements to get himself bailed out.”

Persons who described themselves as friends and associates of Goetz continued efforts Friday to raise money for a Bernhard Goetz Legal Defense Fund, which they announced after his arraignment Thursday.

But Hershey reported that Goetz had said that he would raise the money himself and, “as for these other collections taking place, he did not want the public to pay for his bail.”

One of the wounded youths, who was paralyzed below the waist by a bullet in the back, remained hospitalized in critical condition Friday after developing pneumonia. Another victim was hospitalized in satisfactory condition and two have been released from hospitals.