Page 110 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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84———Brooklyn Bridge Shooting

Further Reading City. This confluence of events put strain on both
New York’s Arab and Jewish communities.
Castellucci, John. The Big Dance: The Untold Story of
Kathy Boudin and the Terrorist Family That Committed Baz went on trial on November 1, 1994, with angry
the Brinks Robbery Murders. New York: Dodd, Mead, spectators and tight security. The prosecution deemed
1986. the attack a “blind-side ambush” in which Baz, with-
Feron, James. Kathy Boudin Given 20 Years to Life in out provocation, attempted to kill all 15 boys in the
Prison; She Expresses Sorrow for Brinks Holdup van. The defense claimed that Baz’s childhood in war-
Deaths. New York Times, May 4, 1984, B4. torn Beirut caused him to develop post-traumatic stress
Frankfort, Ellen. Kathy Boudin and the Dance of Death. syndrome, thus his state of mind during the attack was
New York: Stein and Day, 1983. questionable. Pretrial hearings admitted a tape of Baz’s
interrogation by police, in which he admitted to being
“afraid,” stating that the van of students had cut him off
Brigate Rosse. See RED BRIGADES. and brandished a gun at him—none of which
explained why he had several illegal firearms in his car
or why he had pursued the van so aggressively. (Baz
did not testify on his own behalf.) On December 1,
BROOKLYN BRIDGE SHOOTING 1994, Baz was convicted on one count of second-
degree murder, 14 counts of attempted murder, and
one count of criminal use of a firearm; he was later
A 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting case, in which sentenced to 114 years in prison. The crime was clas-
Rashid Baz, a Lebanese national, was convicted of sified as a case of “road rage.”
shooting at a van of Jewish students, was reopened After much pressure from the Halberstam family
by the FBI in 1999 and reclassified as an act of and several political officials, including Senator
terrorism. Charles E. Schumer of New York, Mayor Giuliani and
Just before 10:30 A.M. on March 1, 1994, Baz, then then-first lady Hilary Clinton, the FBI reopened
a 28-year-old livery car driver, attacked a van on the the investigation in August 1999. By that December,
Brooklyn Bridge that was carrying 15 Hasidic boys the FBI determined that Baz had acted alone and was
from Manhattan to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Baz not linked to any terrorist organizations. The FBI did,
sprayed both sides of the van with bullets from two however, reclassify the crime as a terrorist attack,
guns before fleeing into Brooklyn. motivated by political views and a wish to retaliate
Two of the students who were hit suffered head against Jewish people.
wounds: 16-year-old Aaron Halberstam suffered severe
See also FREELANCE TERRORISM; BARUCH GOLDSTEIN
brain damage and died several days later; Nachum
Sosonkin, 18, underwent surgery and survived, though
a bullet is still lodged in his brain. Two other students Further Reading
sustained minor gunshot wounds. “Ari Halberstam Memorial Site.” http://www.arihalber-
Police arrested Baz at his uncle’s home in Sunset stam.com.
Park, Brooklyn, the next day. Nagourney, Adam. “U.S. Reopens Inquiry Into Yeshiva
The shooting occurred less than a week after Student’s ’94 Shooting Death on Brooklyn Bridge.”
New York Times, August 27, 1999, B9.
Baruch Goldstein, a Brooklyn-born Jewish settler,
massacred 29 Muslims worshipping at a mosque in
Hebron. The press quickly labeled Baz a “fundamen-
talist terrorist” who was retaliating for the attack in Bruders Schweigen. See THE ORDER.
Hebron, and police began investigating possible links
between Baz and the terrorist organization Hezbollah.
After the shooting, New York City mayor Rudolph BUCKLEY, WILLIAM (1928–1985)
Giuliani placed the city’s law enforcement agencies
on an antiterrorist alert, though no credible threats had
been issued. Concurrently, the 1993 World Trade William Francis Buckley, the CIA station chief
Center bombing case was being tried in New York in Beirut during the Lebanese War, was one of the most