From the archives: 'I kept waiting for next bullet'
This story was originally published in Newsday on Dec. 9, 1993.
For several moments Tuesday night, Garden City lawyer Thomas McDermott found himself almost wishing he was back fighting in Da Nang during the Vietnam War.
At least then, McDermott said yesterday, he had a flak jacket and helmet.
But as the one-time Army private's thoughts raced back to the war Tuesday night, he had on nothing save a blazer, slacks and a trenchcoat. Bleeding from a gunshot wound to the shoulder, McDermott huddled beneath a seat on the LIRR 5:33 from Penn Station and stared at the blue-dungareed legs of gunman Colin Ferguson. When he heard the firing continue, he was certain the shots must be directed at him.
"I kept wondering," McDermott recounted yesterday, "waiting for the next bullet - holding the back of my head, thinking: 'Maybe he won't hit me.' . . . It's a feeling of helplessness and wonderment. You just think: 'This is not possible.' It's just frightening."
McDermott, 50, was one of at least 20 survivors of the rush-hour attack who were being treated or had been released yesterday from half a dozen local hospitals. He spoke from his bed at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, where he was listed in satisfactory condition and was being treated for the wound to his left shoulder.
McDermott, who is married and has a son in high school and a daughter in college, lives and practices law in Garden City. He was shot while returning from business in New York.
His first inkling that something was wrong came when he heard a series of sounds that he mistook for rocks striking the train's windows.
"When the people started running down the aisle," he said, "I realized it was not rocks I heard but gunshots."
When he stood up, McDermott saw for the first time the source of the disturbance. As cries of "Oh, my God!" and "Help me!" rang in his ears, he saw Ferguson firing a pistol in an almost random fashion. He watched as the gunman calmly reloaded the weapon, mechanically fired a few more rounds and then began advancing toward him.
"At one point, there was nothing between he and I," McDermott said. "He raised the gun. I thought to myself: 'He's going to shoot.' I turned."
That defensive action, doctors later told him, might have been what saved him, since it allowed the bullet to enter his shoulder instead of his chest. But the impact of the shot spun McDermott under the seat, where he listened to the gunfire continue and waited for the coup de grace.
It was not until he stood up several moments later, after several passengers subdued Ferguson as he was reloading, that McDermott realized the shots he had heard were meant not for him but for the two people sitting directly behind him. The man and woman had crumpled against each other in the seat, their heads touching.
"They looked dead to me," McDermott said.
But it was not always easy to tell. As he walked out of the car, many of the passengers already had fled, but a few had not.
"Some people were still sitting there," he said. "I couldn't tell whether they were shot or just frozen with fear."
Doctors have told McDermott that he likely will be discharged within a few days, after the danger of infection has passed.
"God's good graces saved me . . . This experience is absolutely going to change my life," he said. "I thought about it and I now have more of an appreciation and knowledge that life is so fleeting."
Following is a list of those people wounded in the attack and, where available, information about them and their medical conditions.
Helen Alexandersen, 31, of Franklin Square, was listed in stable condition yesterday at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset. She sustained bullet wounds to the chest, abdomen and left leg.
John Apsel, of Levittown, age unavailable, was listed in serious but stable condition at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola. He was struck in the abdomen, suffering injuries to his spleen, a kidney and his diaphragm. He was operated on Tuesday night.
Elizabeth Aviles, 30, of Hicksville, was listed in stable condition at Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow where she was being treated for a minor back wound. She works as a paralegal in Brooklyn, and caught the 5:33 train after missing her usual express.
Frank Barker, 34, of Garden City, was listed in stable condition at Winthrop. The father of seven was injured by a bullet that went through his left hand and then into his neck, lodging in his tongue. He also sustained an injury to his right thigh.
Alfred Casazza, 61, of Westbury, was listed in stable condition at North Shore with a gunshot wound in the chest. He is a senior research analyst at Moody's Investor Service, a job for which he travels extensively. He has three children and is divorced. "He travels all around the world for them, and this happens here," said his sister, Cathy Dillon of Garden City. " . . . I just feel so sorry, the pain he has to go through."
Lisa Combatti, 33, of Garden City, is seven-and-a-half months pregnant and sustained a gunshot wound to the buttocks. Doctors at Winthrop described both mother and fetus as in good condition, although Combatti was experiencing some unexplained neurological impairment.
The bullet remained lodged inside her as doctors evaluated the impact surgery would have on the fetus.
Brendan Doyle, 33, of New Hyde Park, was being treated for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. No further information was available.
Amy Federici, 28, of Mineola, was seriously injured by a shot to the neck. The bullet severed one of the four major arteries that supply the brain, Brody said, requiring surgery. She remained unconscious yesterday and, though there were some indications of brain activity, she was on life support.
John Forni, 35, was in critical but stable condition at Nassau County Medical Center. The New York City certified public accountant was shot five times - in the chest, arms and face. Forni moved to Garden City from Brooklyn about a year ago, after he got married, according to friend Aggie Lambrou of Island Park.
Marlene Francois, 26, of Westbury, was being treated for a leg injury and released . No further information was available.
Robert Giugliano, 38, of Franklin Square, was treated at North Shore for wounds to his left arm and chest and was released yesterday. Giugliano, a father of three, is an electrical contractor in Manhattan. His wife, Donna, said her husband told her he was at the opposite end of the car from the gunman. He had heard the "pop, pop, pop" of the gun, and looked back and saw the gunman standing in a corner, shooting from left to right. He was seated next to two women he knew from riding the train, and put his arms over them and pushed them to the floor, but was hit as he was going to the floor. He was tended to by three people, one of whom had a cellular phone that Giugliano used to call his daughter, Dawn, 15. The family first went to Winthrop, where his wife saw all the ambulances. "I was waiting for them to pull me over and tell me my husband was dead. He didn't even hear the bullet, he says. He just saw blood all over the place, and before you know it the doors were open and everybody was running out. All he can remember is laying on the floor - three people around him saying, 'You'll be okay,' " said Donna Giugliano
Kevin McCarthy, 26, of Mineola, sustained a serious head injury, but doctors at North Shore said he was doing surprisingly well. His father, Dennis, was killed in the attack. As his father did, Kevin works for Prudential Securities in Manhattan. The neurosurgeon who operated on the younger McCarthy, Dr. Nancy Epstein, said she was "hopeful" about Kevin's chance for survival. "This morning, I was very surprised," Epstein said. "He was awake, alert and following commands. The bullet entered his right temple and exited through his scalp. Doctors said he will likely be paralyzed on his left side.
Jill Michel, 40, of Garden City, was listed in stable condition at Winthrop where she was being treated for a gunshot wound to the forehead. Doctors described it as miraculous that the the bullet did not do major harm to the woman. "It did not break the skull, did not enter the brain or anything like that," said Dr. Gerald Brody, chairman of the hopspital's ambulatory care department. "Whether it was a direct shot or ricochet or something else or something like that, we don't know at this time."
Jeanne Norton, 24, of Garden City, was treated and released for shock at Mercy.
Joseph Panico, 19, of Bethpage, was being treated for a gunshot to the hand. No further information was available.
Maryanne Phillips, 39, of Mineola, is in stable condition at North Shore with bullet wounds to the chest and upper arm. She was sitting next to the gunman, said Dr. Dan Reiner, the hospital's chief of trauma service. "She said he stood up, turned and fired. She said she laid down and pretended she was dead," Reiner said. Phillips' sister, Jeannie Cullen, of Mineola, who is deaf and speech impaired, saw a television news bulletin about the accident about 7 p.m. "I knew it was a train accident at the Merillon Station, but there were no closed captions. I said, 'I hope it's not the 5:33.' I became so frustrated."
Minoru Saito, 61, of Garden City was treated and released from Mercy with a graze wound to the leg. He is married and works for a Japanese business in Manhattan. Merillon Avenue was his usual stop. According to family friends, although he was riding in the same car as the gunman, he never saw him. He recalled that he did not realize he was hit by gunfire until he felt blood and a bullet hole in his pant leg.
Leonard Schultheis, 49, of Franklin Square was treated and released at Nassau County Medical Center.
Debra Weber, 38, of Garden City, is in stable condition at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park with a bullet wound to the thigh. Weber is a bank advisor. Her husband, Robert, said his wife never saw the gunman. She heard several "popping" sounds and then dove to the floor. Just before she was struck, she remembered a bullet whizzed by her head.
Rebecca Blumenstein, Olivia Winslow and Gwen Young contributed to this story.
