From the archives: Train death toll now 6; Mineola woman dies from wounds

This story was originally published in Newsday on Dec. 13, 1993.

After five days on life support, a young interior designer shot in Tuesday's Long Island Rail Road rush-hour rampage died yesterday, bringing the death toll to six. Ironically, she had recently moved from Queens to Mineola for an easier commute.

Amy Federici, 27, pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, suffered a single gunshot wound to the neck when a gunman opened fire aboard the packed 5:33 p.m. train from Penn Station. The slug severed a major artery to her brain, and she never regained consciousness, hospital officials said.

A corporate interior designer for MTV/Music Television and Viacom in Manhattan, Federici was described by family members yesterday as a deeply religious woman who had been struggling to deal with her husband's death last year from cancer. She had decided to move from Bayside to help deal with the loss, they said.

Earlier Tuesday, her parents said, she had called and left a message that she would leave work early. "Give me a call after seven," she said on the answering machine. Later, after seeing a television news bulletin about the shooting, they called and spoke to her roommate, who told them Amy was involved. They left immediately for Winthrop.

After her death yesterday, family members said their faith had sustained them through the ordeal. They said they had received phone calls of support from members of their church and from all over the country.

"Amy's going home was a lengthy one," her mother, Arlene Locicero, said. "We have spent five arduous days watching her to slowly not live."

Authorities said yesterday they would seek additional murder charges against Colin Ferguson, 35, of Brooklyn, who has been charged in the deaths of four passengers so far. Assistant District Attorney George Peck said a grand jury will be asked to consider charges in the deaths of Federici and the fifth victim, Mi Kyung Kim, who died Wednesday. "I hope I don't have to do any more," Peck said.

Federici's death produced new calls for a death penalty in New York, and also fresh shock among Ferguson's relatives in his native Jamaica.

"Amy Federici's death is another indication of the terrible toll of human tragedy wrought by this killer on the innocent victims and their families," Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta said in a statement.

" . . . This further demonstrates the need for the death penalty in New York State for wanton killers and the need for tough laws to put violent criminals behind bars and off the streets."

Princess Ferguson, 59, a first cousin of Colin Ferguson who lives in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, expressed her sorrow.
"Oh God, this hurts," she said. "I know how sad this is for the family of the deceased."

At a hospital news conference, Arlene Locicero, joined by her husband, Jacob, and Amy's younger sister Carrie, called for Americans to pray for their political leaders and for the owners of businesses that manufacture violent toys and games.

Holding hands, the Lociceros also prayed for Frank Barker, John Apsel, Lisa Combatti and Jill Michel, the other four people taken to Winthrop with gunshot wounds.

Combatti, 33, was released from Winthrop on Saturday. She is 7 1/2 months pregnant, but her fetus was unharmed when she was shot in the buttocks in the attack. A friend at her Garden City home said she did not want to be disturbed yesterday.

At the Hawthorne, N.J., home where Federici grew up, Christmas candles glowed last night in the windows of the two-story house and a wreath hung on the door. In an intervew, Jacob Locicero described Amy as a "bouncy, spirited, loving child." Arlene Locicero, who teaches English and public speaking at Hawthorne High School, said her daughter emerged "academically sound" from the small school system.

She was interested in design and received a bachelor's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. She worked as a free-lance designer, occasionally for Macy's, until eight months ago, when she joined MTV, Locicero said. "She had been involved in a number of projects there," she said, including the launch last month of MTV Latino in Miami.

As an artist, Federici was interested in classic Disney animation. She helped design weddings for friends at Hawthorne Gospel Church and also helped with flower arrangements. Her husband was a florist.

She also immersed herself in her bible, family members said. After moving to New York, she joined the New York Church of Christ, an evangelical church based in Manhattan. She attended church meetings in Mineola after moving there, Arlene Locicero said.

"She was - and is - a spiritually alive woman, whose life basically had to do with her savior," Locicero said. "So her knowledge of Scripture was lengthy."

Before moving to Mineola, however, she had a life in Bayside with her husband, Gary Federici, 27, who died last year of liver and pancreatic cancer just three months after the marriage. The death stunned Amy Federici, who did not know her husband was terminally ill when she married him, Locicero said.

Arlene, Jacob and Carrie Locicero all nodded when asked if they thought Amy and Gary Federici were together now. "The answer is absolutely and unequivocally yes," Arlene Locicero said.

"We've been coping through the strength of our faith," Jacob Locicero said later. "We are born-again Christians and this [death] is only temporary. We will see her again."

After her husband's death, Amy Federici remained in Bayside. "That's where the love of her life was," Arlene Locicero said.

But soon she moved to Mineola in an attempt to deal better with her loss. Also, it was an easier commute to Manhattan on the LIRR main line from Mineola, Locicero said.

Locicero spoke calmly and clearly to the media, pausing both to keep her composure and to choose her words carefully.

"From this remarkable institution, my family appears before these cameras heartbroken," she said. The family knows little about the shootings, she said. "We have been isolated by request from television and newspapers," she said.

As Amy did after her husband died, her family is now relying on its faith to carry them through their loss.

"The other day while I was out walking outside the hospital, I was crying," Locicero said. "It occurred to me that God must have felt much the same way when his son hung on Calvary. Calvary gave me eternity. My daughter is eternally secure because of that shed blood."

Federici's own shed blood will help others to live, too, her mother said. "Amy's vital, healthy organs will grant another the right to live on this, our land," Locicero said. Hospital officials said Federici's heart, liver, kidneys and lungs will be transplanted.

The bullet that eventually killed Federici entered through the front of her neck and severed one of the vertebral arteries alongside her spine, doctors said. She was in cardiac arrest when she arrived in the emergency room, said Dr. Herbert Perry, the trauma surgeon who treated her. Surgeons restored a pulse and blood pressure, but "the damage had already occurred at that point," he said.

Federici died while still on life support, said her neurologist, Dr. Bernard J. Savella. Surgeons had tied off the vertebral artery, Perry said. Blood flowed to the brain through the other vertebral artery and the two carotid arteries, he said.

At the news conference, Locicero said she doubted she would get involved in gun-control campaigns, but said violence has become too common in American society. She said she would try to find out the names of chief executive officers of companies that manufacture guns and violent toys. She did not know what she would do with the names, she said.

The Locicero family asked that contributions be sent to the Amy Federici Memorial Scholarship Fund, Hawthorne High School, Parmale Avenue, Hawthorne, N.J. 07506.

Status of Victims

The death yesterday of Amy Federici brought the toll from last week's shooting on the LIRR to six. Of the 19 others wounded, one remained in critical condition. The following is a breakdown of the dead and of the injured who are still hospitalized.

The Dead

Amy Federici, 27, Mineola
James Gorycki, 51, Mineola
Mi Kyung Kim, 27, New Hyde Park
Marita Theresa Magtoto, 30, Westbury
Dennis McCarthy, 52, Mineola
Richard Nettleton, 24, Roslyn Heights

In Critical Condition

Kevin McCarthy, 26, Mineola, at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset; critical but stable condition, gunshot wound to head.

Others Injured Who Remain Hospitalized

Helen Alexandersen, 31, Franklin Square, at North Shore University; good condition, gunshot wounds to chest, abdomen and thigh.
John Apsel, Levittown, no age available, at Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola; serious but stable, gunshot wound to abdomen and internal organs.
Brendan Doyle, 33, New Hyde Park, at South Nassau Communities Hospital, Oceanside; stable, gunshot wound to abdomen.
John Forni, 35, Garden City, at North Shore; upgraded to stable, shot five times, including chest, arm and face wounds. Today, he is scheduled to be moved out of the Intensive Care Unit to a regular ward, a doctor said yesterday.
Maryanne Phillips, 39, Mineola, at North Shore; good condition, gunshot wound to chest and arm.
Debra Weber, 38, Garden City, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park; stable, gunshot wound to the thigh.