Man's chokehold death on NYC train probed

The homeless man who was killed on a New York City subway after being put in a chokehold by a fellow passenger had been flagged by the city as having dire needs that should be tended to, but he slipped through the system, say advocates.

Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old street artist who was well known for performing as Michael Jackson on the subway and around Times Square, was clearly mentally distressed shouting that he was hungry and didn't care if he returned to jail as he was ready to die, minutes before his death on May 1, witnesses said.

A video of the Neely's death recorded by Juan Alberto Vazquez, another passenger on the F subway train, showed fellow passenger, Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old former US Marine, putting him in a chokehold for several minutes, ending his life. According to reports, two men helped pin down Neely, who was black. Penny is white.

The New York City medical examiner found that Neely died from "compression of the neck". His death has been ruled a homicide.

Penny hasn't been arrested and doesn't face charges currently. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is overseeing the investigation of Neely's death. A grand jury is expected to review the case this week to determine if criminal charges are warranted.

The killing of Neely has sparked widespread protests in the city. Homeless advocates and civil rights group are calling for charges to be made in the case.

One protest took place outside Bragg's office on Friday. Demonstrators chanted "Indict Daniel Penny!" Others shouted, "Jordan Neely deserved better from New York".

Jumaane Williams, the city's public advocate, which handles complaints about government regulations and services, called for charges to be filed "immediately" in the case.

Lennon Edwards, an attorney acting on behalf of Neely's family, said being homeless and hungry shouldn't warrant murder.

Penny's lawyers, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, said in a statement on Friday: "When Mr Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived. Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death."

New York City outreach workers had placed Neely on a "Top 50" list of homeless people who needed urgent care from a range of agencies. The list is supposed to be an alert system for homeless organizations to ensure no one slips through the cracks.

Neely's life changed after his mother, Christine Neely, went missing from their apartment in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 2007. Her body was later found; she had been strangled and her body stuffed in a suitcase and dumped on the side of a highway in the Bronx. Her boyfriend was charged with murder. She was 36; Neely was 13 years old at the time.

Following her death, Neely dropped out of school. He started performing as the King of Pop and dressed like him. In recent years, friends said that he battled drug addiction to K2, a synthetic marijuana substance. He had been taken to a hospital several times voluntarily and involuntarily.

He also had been arrested 42 times for jumping subway turnstiles, petty larceny, theft and three assaults on women in the subway, between 2019 and 2021.

In 2019, an outreach worker reported that the homeless Neely had lost weight and had begun to sleep upright, according to The New York Times. In another incident, Neely threatened to kill a subway booth agent. It was noted that he had become more erratic.

Neely's death has placed a spotlight on Mayor Eric Adams' policies regarding homelessness, which the mayor defended during a news conference last week. Progressive Democrats have criticized his policies regarding public safety and mental illness.

Adams, a former police officer who ran on a tough-on-crime platform during his successful 2021 mayoral bid, entered office seeking to overhaul the city's approach to homelessness and public safety.

Last year, he announced a plan to remove homeless individuals from the subway and directed law enforcement and emergency medical workers to involuntarily hospitalize individuals deemed to be in "psychiatric crisis".

Some felt the steps — which included sweeps of homeless encampments — went too far and infringed on the rights of homeless individuals who were distrustful of staying in the city's shelters and had no other recourse for housing.

"This is what highlights what I've been saying throughout my administration," he said last week about the Neely incident. "People who are dealing with mental health illness should get the help they need and not live on the train. And I'm going to continue to push on that."

New York City Council Member Tiffany Caban spoke out against the mayor.

"This is the inevitable outcome of the dangerous rhetoric of stigmatizing mental health issues, stigmatizing poverty, and the continued bloated investment in the carceral system at the expense of funding access to housing, food, and health," she told Politico.

Agencies contributed to this story.