[Socrates]

Well said! Goetz would have been far better off if he would have just given the thugs the $5. Another example of how failing to understand the typical dynamics of a situation can lead to far greater loss of resources.

One more time: words by a bad guy, in the act of committing a crime are worthless. The 5 dollar request is to distract, or, to get your wallet out. Do you REALLY think these scumbags,

wait, it just dawned on me, you don't know what wonderful folks these guys were. Here, from the same Wikpedia article:

At the time of the incident the four young men had a total of fourteen criminal bench warrants, although only Cabey had been charged with a felony, armed robbery. All of the men were either 18 or 19, and had reached the legal age of majorit

Goetz had on two prior occassions brandished, and not shot. I believe his perception of the group attacking him was correct:

once in the mid 1970s while with friends returning to a Harlem subway station, Goetz was mugged yet again in 1981 by three men and sustained injuries from the assault. Though he had prior target shooting experience earlier in his life, it was this second violent mugging that prompted Goetz to begin carrying a gun. Goetz did apply for a permit to carry a handgun, which was denied as are most such applications in New York City. Goetz bought the gun — a five-shot, alloy J-frame Smith and Wesson "Airweight" revolver with a shrouded hammer — out of fear for his safety. Goetz had brandished the pistol on two occasions prior to the attack on the subway in order to frighten away would-be robbers. It was this firearm that Goetz used to shoot the four men who confronted him on the subway in 1984.

Those in the second camp tended to believe the version of the incident as told by the four men, that they were merely panhandling with neither intimidation nor threats of violence. This latter view of events was later substantially discredited when one of the four men admitted that they planned to rob Goetz.

This second indictment was later dismissed after two of the shooting victims were arrested on separate rape and robbery charges, and a third shooting victim stated in a newspaper interview that the other members of the group decided to rob Goetz because he looked like "easy bait." Independent eyewitness statements were still withheld from the media.

Pretty sure that the bad guys didn't have finger prints in the system. As soon as they acosted Goetz, prints go into the system, and, they start matching up for unsolved robberies and rapes...