Shooting spree gunman calls self a ‘terrorist’
The man convicted for the 2001 rampage told a parole board he became an extremist before firing more than 60 shots in the village
The gunman in the June 2001 shooting rampage through the village of New Paltz told a state parole board that in the years leading up his crime, he was a “selfish, narcissistic, depraved and indifferent person” who had become radicalized by “anti-government” and “anti-police” literature he found at gun shows and that he had “fantasies ... of going out in a blaze of glory, attacking the police in some sort of apocalyptic battle with the police and authority.”
The board denied Jared Bozydaj parole following the Feb. 17 interview.
Bozydaj told the board he wants to make amends for his actions by working against the extremism that he said drove him to don a body vest and embark on a shooting spree that terrorized the New Paltz community, left a sheriff’s deputy wounded and caused damage to people’s homes and businesses.
“Especially after watching what happened in our country over the last year, during the summer, and then the attack [on the U.S. Capitol] on January 6, the extremist narratives that were out there, when I was out there 20 years ago were a fringe, and now it appears that it has become more mainstream, and I want to be able to work against that in any way I can,” Bozydaj said, according to a heavily redacted transcript of his parole hearing.
Bozydaj, who was 25 at the time of the shootings, told the panel he intended to work with the group “Life After Hate” and share his story in an attempt to make amends for his actions and to discourage others from going down the same path. According to its website, Life After Hate is a not-forprofit organization committed to helping people leave the violent far right and connect with humanity and lead compassionate lives.
Bozydaj was sentenced to 20 years to life for attempted murder, criminal use of a firearm, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment and illegally wearing a body vest after admitting that, on June 21, 2001, he fired more than 60 rounds from his semiautomatic rifle as he walked around Church, Main, North Chestnut and North Front streets in New Paltz. During his rampage, he shot an Ulster County sheriff’s deputy in the arm and fired on a New Paltz police vehicle. That shot went through the vehicle’s front windshield, barely missing the officer inside.
“I was a terrorist, and I committed a terrorist act,” Bozydaj told the parole board. “There is no justification. I am totally responsible for these acts.”
He told the panel that in the years leading up to the shooting spree, he had struggled with feelings of low selfworth and being unloved. But instead of looking inward to help understand those feelings, he said, he turned to drugs and alcohol and the anti-government rhetoric he found in literature at gun shows.
“At the time, I was going to gun shows, and this is where I bought my weapons,” he said. “The gun shows, at the time, were really hotbeds of anti-government sentiments.
“You could buy books, pamphlets, all kinds of stuff that had anti-government and anti-police views,” he added. “I was basically self-radicalizing at the time, trying to find the reason why my anger was so prevalent, and instead of looking inside of myself, instead of looking at the things that I was doing, I started to put it out on the world, I started putting it out on authority figures and, basically, believing that there was some sort of plot against people, by the government and by the authorities.”
In an interview the day after his arrest, Bozydaj told a Freeman reporter he was angry in particular about the government’s recent execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who he called a “political prisoner” and “a soldier who did what he had to do.”
Bozydaj also said during that jailhouse interview that he was trying to make a statement with the shooting spree and hoped the people he hung out with in New Paltz would be forced to think about why he did what he did and confront what the United States had become.
In the two decades he’s been behind bars, Bozydaj said he’s come to realize his actions were his own and that no one but he was to blame. He said he has spent the last 20 years focusing on becoming a better person, earning an associate’s degree, working on a bachelor’s degree, and working to transform himself from the “selfish and narcissistic” person he was.
“I’ve done what I can to amend myself, to make sure that I’m never that man again; that I can never, ever commit those sorts of crimes again,” he said.
“I have to be honest with you, Commissioner,” Bozydaj said. “I know how difficult it is for you. I mean if any crime undermines respect for the law, my crime does. I understand that,
fully. I know that, fully. But I can tell you this, that man is gone, that man doesn’t even exist anymore, and he will never exist again.
“The man before you now has accomplished a lot of things, educationally, personally, physically and mentally. I believe I could be a credible messenger, to work against other people that may be thinking these same thoughts out there,” he said.
The parole board was unswayed by Bozydaj comments, saying the impact of his crime “extremely disturbs the panel, where you presented clear and evident danger to society, disregarding life, the law and law enforcement.”
“You remain a symbol of violence and terror in the community,” the board stated.
Bozydaj is eligible to go before a parole board again in February 2023.