When Bernhard Goetz shot four unarmed Black teenagers in 1984, half of New York called him a hero. Elliot Williams explains how it happened during an evening conversation with Jonathan Capehart.

On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz boarded a New York City subway car and opened fire on four Black teenagers from the Bronx — a moment that would divide a city, ignite a national debate, and expose the fault lines of American justice.

Join us for a community conversation around Five Bullets, the acclaimed new book by CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams. Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times and The Washington Post, Five Bullets takes readers back to a gritty, fear-gripped New York to reexamine the case of the so-called “Subway Vigilante” — and asks questions that feel as urgent now as they did forty years ago: Who gets to feel safe in America? Who is cast as the threat? And how do media, politics, and public perception shape what we call justice?

From the courtroom to the tabloids, from Al Sharpton to Rupert Murdoch, Williams traces how one act of violence became a referendum on race, self-defense, and the conscience of a nation — with echoes that reach from the 1980s straight to our present day.

Whether you’ve read the book or are coming with fresh eyes, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.