NEW YORK CITY, N.Y., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Bernard Goetz, who became notorious when he shot four young black men on a New York subway, has been charged with selling marijuana, police said.
Goetz, 65, allegedly offered to sell a small quantity of pot Friday to a female undercover officer in Union Square, the New York Post reported, citing police sources. The source said he told the officer he wanted to get high with her and offered to sell her $30 worth of marijuana.
He was arrested after he allegedly went upstairs to his apartment and returned with the marijuana, wrapped in a tissue.
"Bernie? Oh, come on, they arrested him for that? It's just pot, they should let him go," John D'Antonia, a doorman in a nearby building, told the Post. "People will now probably say he shot those kids because he was high."
Goetz, dubbed the "subway vigilante" in tabloid headlines, became a folk hero to some and a villain to others in 1984, when he opened fire on the four men, all in their late teens and unarmed, although they were carrying screwdrivers. He was acquitted of attempted murder and convicted of a gun charge, and served eight months in prison.
While the young men said they only asked Goetz for money, he said he thought they were trying to rob him.
The shooting occurred at a time when violent crime rates had been rising in New York for more than a decade.
