Editing Long Island Rail Road shooting (section)

==Perpetrator==
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Colin Ferguson
| image             = Colin Ferguson mug shot.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Mugshot of Ferguson in 2003
| birth_name        = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1958|01|14}}
| birth_place       = [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]], [[Colony of Jamaica|Jamaica]]
| criminal_status   = Incarcerated at [[Mid-State Correctional Facility]]
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| cause             = 
| penalty           = 315 years and 8 months to life in prison
| parents           = Von Herman Ferguson<br />May Ferguson
| spouse            = Audrey Warren (1986–1988)
| conviction        = [[Murder in New York law#Second-degree murder|Second degree murder]] (6 counts)<br>[[Attempted murder|Attempted second degree murder]] (19 counts)<br>[[Criminal possession of a weapon|Second degree criminal possession of a weapon]]<br>[[Criminal possession of a weapon|Third degree criminal possession of a weapon]]
}}

Colin Ferguson was born in [[Kingston, Jamaica]], on January 14, 1958<ref name="Jones1209">{{Cite news |last=Jones |first=Charisse |title=Death on the L.I.R.R.: The Suspect; In Notes and Past of Accused, Portrait of Boiling Resentment |work=The New York Times |date=December 9, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/09/nyregion/death-lirr-suspect-notes-past-accused-portrait-boiling-resentment.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 4, 2009}}</ref> to Von Herman and May Ferguson. Von Herman was a wealthy pharmacist and the managing director of the large pharmaceutical company Hercules Agencies,<ref name="PierrePierre1210">{{Cite news |last=Pierre-Pierre |first=Garry |title=Death on the L.I.R.R.; Suspect's Quiet Roots in Jamaica Suburb |date=December 10, 1993 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/10/nyregion/death-on-the-lirr-suspect-s-quiet-roots-in-jamaica-suburb.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 5, 2009}}</ref> and was described by [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] as "one of the most prominent businessmen in Jamaica".<ref name="Time1220">{{Cite magazine |last1=Toufexis |first1=Anastasia |last2=Cole |first2=Patrick E. |title=CRIME: Colin Ferguson: A Mass Murderer's Journey Toward Madness |magazine=Time |date=December 20, 1993 |location=Los Angeles, California |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979847,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110118062215/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C979847%2C00.html |archive-date=January 18, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Ferguson attended the [[Calabar High School]] in Red Hills Road, Kingston, from 1969 to 1974,<ref name="McFadden1212">{{Cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |title=A Tormented Life – A special report; A Long Slide From Privilege Ends in Slaughter on a Train |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/12/nyregion/tormented-life-special-report-long-slide-privilege-ends-slaughter-train.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 5, 2009 |date=December 12, 1993}}</ref> where the principal described him as a "well-rounded student" who played [[cricket]] and soccer.<ref name="Jones1209" /> He graduated in the top third of his class.<ref name="McFadden1212" />

Von Herman was killed in a car crash in 1978 when Ferguson was aged 20, and his funeral was attended by government and military luminaries. Ferguson's mother died from [[cancer]] soon afterwards, and the deaths destroyed the family's fortunes.<ref name="Time1220" /> Family friends said that this deeply disturbed Ferguson. He moved to the United States in 1982 on a [[Travel visa|visitor's visa]]. His friends speculated that he had trouble dealing with [[racism]] in the U.S.<ref name="PierrePierre1210" /> and that he felt frustrated because he could only find menial jobs.<ref name="Rabinovitz1211">{{Cite news |last=Rabinovitz |first=Jonathan |work=The New York Times |date=December 11, 1993 |title=Death on the L.I.R.R.; Lawyer Seeks Sanity Inquiry In L.I. Killings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/11/nyregion/death-on-the-lirr-lawyer-seeks-sanity-inquiry-in-li-killings.html |url-access=limited |access-date=December 11, 2009}}</ref>

Ferguson married Audrey Warren on May 13, 1986, a native of [[Southampton County, Virginia]],<ref name="Rabinovitz1210">{{Cite news |last=Rabinovitz |first=Jonathan |title=Death on the L.I.R.R.; Police Look for the Spark That Led to the Shootings |work=The New York Times |date=December 10, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/10/nyregion/death-on-the-lirr-police-look-for-the-spark-that-led-to-the-shootings.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 7, 2009}}</ref> which qualified him for permanent U.S. residence. The couple moved to a house on Long Island where they often fought, sometimes to the point that police intervention was required.<ref name="McFadden1212" /> On May 18, 1988,<ref name="Rabinovitz1210" /> she obtained an uncontested divorce from Ferguson, claiming that the marriage ended because they had "differing social views".<ref name="McQuiston1213">{{Cite news |last=McQuiston |first=John T. |title=Mineola Woman Is 6th to Die in Rail Shootings |work=The New York Times |date=December 13, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/13/nyregion/mineola-woman-is-6th-to-die-in-rail-shootings.html |access-date=November 4, 2009}}</ref> Acquaintances said that she left Ferguson because he was "too aggressive or antagonistic" for her,<ref name="Rabinovitz1211" /> and that the divorce was a "crushing blow" to Ferguson.<ref name="McFadden1212" />

Ferguson got a job doing clerical work for the Ademco Security Group in [[Syosset, New York]]. He slipped and fell on August 18, 1989, while standing on a stool to reach invoices from a filing cabinet, injuring his head, neck, and back,<ref name="McFadden1212" /> and the injury led to his termination.<ref name="Time1220" /> Ferguson filed a complaint with the state [[workers' compensation]] agency, which reviewed the matter over the next several years.<ref name="Jones1209" /> He enrolled at [[Nassau Community College]] in [[East Garden City, New York|East Garden City]], where he made the dean's list three times.<ref name="Time1220" /> Also that year, he was forced to leave a class after a disciplinary hearing board found that he had acted aggressively towards the teacher.<ref name="Jones1209" />

In late 1990, Ferguson transferred to [[Adelphi University]] in Garden City, where he majored in business administration.<ref name="Jones1209" /> He spoke out against coexistence with whites, made calls for retributive revolution, and accused others around him of racism. On one occasion, he complained that a white woman in the library shouted racial epithets at him after he asked her about a class assignment, but an investigation concluded that the incident never occurred. Later, he attended a symposium by a faculty member discussing her experiences in South Africa under [[apartheid]]. Ferguson interrupted the professor by shouting, "We should be talking about the revolution in South Africa and how to get rid of the white people"<ref name="Schemo1210" >{{Cite news |last=Schemo |first=Diana Jean |title=Death on the L.I.R.R.; Adelphi Recalls a Student Driven by Rage and Suspended for Making Threats |work=The New York Times |date=December 10, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/10/nyregion/death-lirr-adelphi-recalls-student-driven-rage-suspended-for-making-threats.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 4, 2009}}</ref> and, "Kill everybody white!"<ref name="Time1220" /> Students and teachers tried to quiet him, but he started threatening them, repeatedly saying, "The black revolution will get you."<ref name="Schemo1210" /> He was suspended from the school in June 1991 as a result of the threats.<ref name="Schemo1210" /> He was free to reapply after the suspension, but did not.<ref name="Jones1209" />

In 1991, Ferguson rented a room in [[Flatbush, Brooklyn]].<ref name="Jones1209" /> He was unemployed<ref name="Time1220" /> and lived around many other [[West Indian people|West Indian]] immigrants. Neighbors said that he dressed very neatly but kept to himself and rarely smiled or spoke to anybody, except occasionally to say hello.<ref name="Jones1209" /> "He had [[delusions of grandeur]]," his landlord Patrick Denis recounted. "He felt like, 'I'm such a great person. There must be only one thing holding me back. It must be white people.'"<ref name="McFadden1212" /> In 1992, Ferguson's ex-wife filed a complaint with police alleging that he pried open the trunk of her car. Prior to the shooting, she had not seen him since the divorce.<ref name="Time1220" />

In February 1992, Ferguson was arrested and charged with harassing a woman on a subway. The woman tried to sit in a vacant seat alongside Ferguson and asked him to move over, prompting him to scream at her and press his leg and elbow against her until police officers pinned him to the ground. Ferguson tried to escape the police and shouted, "Brothers, come help me!"<ref name="Perez-Pena1213">{{Cite news |last=Perez-Pena |first=Richard |title=Woman in '92 Subway Dispute With L.I.R.R. Suspect Says All the Signs Were There |work=The New York Times |date=December 13, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/13/nyregion/woman-in-92-subway-dispute-with-lirr-suspect-says-all-the-signs-were-there.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 7, 2009}}</ref> He sent letters to the [[New York City Police Commissioner]] and other officials complaining about his arrest, describing it as "viscous{{sic}} and racist,"<ref name="Jones1209" /> and claiming that he was brutalized by the officers who arrested him. The [[New York City Transit Authority]] investigated and dismissed the claims.<ref name="Barron1209">{{Cite news |last=Barron |first=James |author-link=James Barron (journalist) |work=The New York Times |date=December 9, 1993 |title=Death on the L.I.R.R.: The Overview; Portrait of Suspect Emerges in Shooting on L.I. Train |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/09/nyregion/death-lirr-overview-portrait-suspect-emerges-shooting-li-train.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 5, 2009}}</ref>

In September 1992, Ferguson was awarded $26,250 for his workers' compensation claim against Ademco Security Group. In April 1993, he insisted that he was still in pain and asked for the case to be reopened so that he could get more money for medical treatment.<ref name="McFadden1212" /> In the following weeks, Ferguson visited a [[Manhattan]] law firm for a consultation, and attorney Lauren Abramson said that she immediately felt uncomfortable and threatened by him. She asked a law clerk to sit in on the meeting because she did not want to be alone with Ferguson,<ref name="Jones1209" /> which she had never done before. Ferguson was neatly dressed during the consultation, but he acted strangely and identified himself by a false name before providing his real name. Months later, he made threatening calls to members of the firm, claiming that they were discriminating against him. In one of the calls, he made reference to a massacre which occurred in [[California]]. The calls prompted the lawyers to start locking their inner office doors. Ferguson tried to have his workers' compensation claim reopened by the New York State Workers' Compensation Board, which reexamined the case due to his persistence, but it was ultimately rejected.<ref name="Jones1209"/> The board placed him on a list of potentially dangerous people security guards were to watch for.<ref name="Time1220"/>

In April 1993,<ref name="McFadden1212"/> Ferguson moved to California in search of new career opportunities. He unsuccessfully applied for several jobs, including at a car wash where the manager laughed at him. Ferguson bought a Ruger P89 9×19mm pistol at a Turner's Outdoorsman in [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]] for $400 after waiting the fifteen-day period required under California's gun laws.<ref name="Barron1209"/><ref name="NYEditorial1210">{{Cite news |title=Mass Murder on the 5:33 |work=The New York Times |date=December 10, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/10/opinion/mass-murder-on-the-5-33.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 5, 2009}}</ref> He presented himself as a California resident by providing a driver's license that he had received two months earlier, which had an address of the Long Beach motel where he stayed.<ref name="NYEditorial1210"/> He had been robbed by two men, so he started carrying the gun with him in a paper bag.<ref name="McFadden1212"/> Ferguson moved back to New York in May 1993 because, as he told a friend, he did not like competing with immigrants and [[Hispanic]]s for jobs.<ref name="Time1220"/> His Flatbush landlord said that he appeared even more unstable upon his return, speaking in the [[third person (grammar)|third person]] about "some apocryphal-type doom scenario" which included black people rising up and striking down "their pompous rulers and oppressors." Ferguson started taking five showers a day and could be heard by neighbors repeatedly chanting at night "all the black people killing all the white people." His landlord became increasingly concerned about Ferguson's obsession with racism and apparently growing mental instability, and asked him to move out by the end of the month.<ref name="McFadden1212"/>