Kevin McCarthy never knew what hit him.
"I remember leaving Penn Station and hearing an undistinguished sound. I did not realize it was a shot," McCarthy testified Tuesday at the trial of Colin Ferguson, who is accused of killing six people and wounding 19 others on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in December 1993.McCarthy, whose father died in his lap during the bloodbath, was the latest victim to testify in the bizarre murder trial. He was asked just one question by Ferguson, who is acting as his own defense attorney - whether he could identify the shooter.
"I did not see the person who shot me," McCarthy said.
The most seriously injured of the wounded riders, McCarthy used a cane to make his way to the witness box. He spoke in a soft voice before a rapt courtroom and kept his emotions in check, even when recounting his first realization that his father was dead.
McCarthy said he was engrossed in a book when the shooting started. The next thing he remembered was being carried out on a board by emergency personnel.
On the day of his father's funeral, "I realized he wasn't coming up with my mother" on hospital visits, McCarthy said.
McCarthy's 52-year-old father, Dennis, was his daily seatmate on the commute to their jobs at Prudential Securities in Manhattan; they attended Mass together each morning.
Kevin McCarthy was originally given a 10 percent chance of survival; he had lost one-tenth of his brain and part of his skull and suffered partial paralysis of his left leg and hand. He still receives 25 hours of physical therapy a week and has not returned to work.
McCarthy was joined in the courtroom by his mother, Carolyn, and other family members. Other victims of the shooting also attended Tuesday's proceedings.
Like many of the survivors, McCarthy said outside the courtroom that his testimony helped put the shootings behind him.
"It is a closing," he said.
Witness upon witness has testified that Ferguson was responsible for the shootings, but Ferguson said he was sleeping aboard the train when an unidentified white man stole his gun and opened fire on the crowded car.
Earlier, the jury heard from three other shooting victims: a man whose injuries left him unable to hold his two children, a woman whose wedding was delayed while she recovered from three bullet wounds and the only black victim of the rampage.