30-year-old Jordan Neely died Monday after a former Marine placed him in a choke hold on the subway during what police said was a fight. Video of ’his last moments alive has sparked outrage, while authorities have yet to charge his suspected killer.
According to video and eyewitness accounts Neely boarded a northbound F train on Monday afternoon a little after 2 p.m. and began berating straphangers. “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up. I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die,” he screamed, according to freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez’s who posted it on his Facebook page, “Luces de Nueva York.” Neely did not assault anyone, Vazquez said.
It’s not uncommon when dozens of people witness someone killing another person in a public space, one of two things happens: The killer is arrested or they flee. The tabloids might dub them “subway killer.” But none of that happened after the 24-year-old white former U.S. Marine whose name has not been made public killed Jordan Neely, an unarmed Black man, on an F train in the NoHo area of Manhattan. The white subway killer did not flee. He was not arrested.
Calls on Authorities to Explore Manslaughter or Murder Charges for Killing of Homeless Man
The Manhattan DA’s office told the press it is investigating the incident. But several including Rev. Al Sharpton this vigilante be investigated for manslaughter, if not murder.
Sharpton, the founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), today responded to the killing of Jordan Neely as the reportedly homeless man experienced a mental health episode on the subway.
Disturbing video shows a passenger put Neely, 30, into a chokehold on an F train Monday until he lost consciousness. Neely, who was a well-known Michael Jackson impersonator on subways and in Times Square, later died at Lenox Hill Hospital. The passenger was taken into custody by police but released Monday night without charges.
“The National Action Network demands the District Attorney and police investigate this horrific incident as a potential case of manslaughter – if not murder. Thirty years ago, I fought the Bernard Goetz case and we cannot end up back to a place where vigilantism is tolerable. It wasn’t acceptable then and it cannot be acceptable now. We hope the family of Jordan Neely will come forward so NAN can ensure he is funeralized properly and decently.”
.
