One of the African-American then-teenagers shot by Bernhard Goetz in 1984 has died in a possible suicide.

A man who was injured by Manhattan subway gunman Bernhard Goetz has been found dead in what appears to be a drug overdose 27 years to the day after the shooting, NBCNewYork.com reported Friday.

James Ramseur, one of four then-teenagers wounded in the notorious 1984 incident, was discovered dead in a Bronx motel room on Thursday, with two empty prescription pill bottles next to the bed. The labels were scratched off of the bottles, The New York Daily News reported.

His death is being investigated as an apparent overdose and as a possible suicide, sources told The Daily News.

Two takeaways from the article:

Ramseur was freed from prison last year after serving 25 years for a rape, according to NBCNewYork.com.

According to Biography.com, Goetz still lives in New York City and has opened a store called Vigilante Electronics.

I don’t mean this to be about race. Other black men have responded to both racism and being stopped from committing a crime (whichever you think the shooting incident was) with a determination to succeed and prove their detractors wrong. Ramseur made the wrong choice and committed a very serious crime. He wound up spending most of his life in prison, and like Brooks of The Shawshank Redemption, found himself ill prepared to deal with life once released. But given the horrendous hand life dealt him starting out, one must at least feel a small amount of pity for James Rameur. Goetz, on the other hand, was dealt a much better hand in life and after paying for his crime went back to playing it decently.

The fact that one man owns a business and the other died broken says a great deal about both how you get your start and how you live your life.