Dear Marcus

Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me is a memoir by Jerry McGill, a shooting survivor, motivational speaker, and author. Paralyzed from the waist down after a random shooting in early 1980s Manhattan, Jerry writes in epistolary form to his unknown assailant, to whom he ascribes the name Marcus. McGill’s highly personal recollection of this trauma is both an attempt to use language to produce a sense of catharsis, and an appeal to the American public to work vigorously to eliminate its gun culture and rhetoric of violence. The author traces his life beginning before the accident, showing how his life was forever changed in its aftermath. The novel was highly acclaimed for its depth of insight into the lived experience of the shooting victim in America, and the fragility of innocence in a country with a systemic gun problem.

McGill recounts his early life in the housing projects of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In childhood, he excelled at sports, especially dancing, and aspired to become a famous professional dancer. He developed his skills so well that his vision seemed inevitable. Meanwhile, he struggled occasionally with his family’s financial situation and the multitude of difficulties faced by his single mother. Despite these challenges, the McGill family scraped by, their story not atypical for an African-American family in modern America.

McGill’s aspirations took an abrupt turn one night when he was only thirteen. On New Year’s Eve, he left a party with his friend and began to walk home. Suddenly, he was shot in the back by an unknown person, who fled and was never caught. Jerry was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. After a grueling and expensive recovery process, he learned that his spinal injury would leave him partially paralyzed for life.



For a long while, McGill despaired at the involuntary shift in consciousness from being an aspiring dancer to being wheelchair-bound, seemingly without much of a future. He recalls overidentifying with his disability, viewing it as a condition that foreclosed most of the experiences that make life meaningful. At the time of his writing the letter to “Marcus,” he addresses the shooter candidly, without rage, despair, or self-effacement. He has come to see his life as full again, rather than reduced by his disability. His main objective in writing to his assailant is to force Marcus to empathize with his plight and understand the effect a single bullet can have on a victim’s life.

Much of McGill’s explanation to Marcus recounts the cascade of effects that proceeded from the shooting, both good and bad. After learning his way around as a disabled person, he went on to travel the world as a motivational speaker, teaching young people about gun violence and serving as a mentor for young people who struggle with disabilities.

McGill’s process of writing to his attacker is ultimately an act of resistance to the fate that social stigmas surrounding disability suggested to him. Though he was unable to become a dancer, his recovery from the physical and emotional trauma transformed him rather than weaken or humiliate him. In the letter’s present day, McGill laughs at the capriciousness of fate, which always defeats expectation, and expresses empathy for people like him, while simultaneously condemning the crime and violent rhetoric that feeds on American society and policy.