Jordan Neely
Commuters stand on the F train while it stops at the Carroll St. station February 13, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo credit: Preston Rescigno
Jordan Neely Death: Outrage Grows Over Subway Choking
The medical examiner revealed Jordan Neely died from "compression of neck"; they determined death to be a homicide.
A white ex-marine choked to death a 30-year-old man named Jordan Neely who was acting in an “erratic manner" while riding a New York City train on Monday (May 1).According to Juan Alberto Vazquez — a freelance journalist who taped the encounter and posted it on his Facebook page, “Luces de Nueva York," — Neely was screaming on the train, saying: “‘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.’”
Vazquez said he was non-violent but started to throw garbage at fellow commuters. This is when the a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran — whose name has not yet been released — got involved and restrained him.
The altercation took place at 2:30 PM local time on an F train heading toward the Broadway-Lafayette station. In Vazquez's video, you can see Neely being held down for at least two minutes. Even after Neely stopped moving, the man still continued to hold him down for at least another 50 seconds. According to multiple reports, the man had Neely in the chokehold for 15 minutes. Neely was laying motionless and at one point you can hear someone saying, “He’ll be all right."
The conductor soon called 911 and by the time EMS came, Neely was unconscious. Neely was later taken to Lenox Health hospital in Greenwich Village, where he was pronounced dead. On Wednesday, May 3rd, the medical examiner revealed Neely died from "compression of neck (chokehold)"; they determined the death to be a homicide.
Although the ex-Marine was taken in for questioning, he was released without charges, causing outrage among many progressive users on social media. Before the autopsy results were released, a rally for Neely was held at the Broadway-Lafayette station. Some New Yorkers remembered Neely as once being a Michael Jackson impersonator.
\u201cTW: Lynching \n\nThe lynching of Jordan Neely is what happens when you blame every violent thing that happens in this country on mental illness because while it excuses violent behavior from white people, it criminalizes mental illness in Black people. \n\nThe man who choked him\u201d— @ImaniBarbarin@disabled.social (@@ImaniBarbarin@disabled.social) 1683119848
\u201cThinking about a man named Jordan Neely, how he should still be here. Do not let them (the cops or their PR papers) trick you into becoming heartless & thinking certain folks don\u2019t have a right to exist. Don\u2019t become numb to the normalization of murder, no matter how it\u2019s spun.\u201d— #SaveNewCollege \ud83d\udc99 \ud83c\udf08 (@#SaveNewCollege \ud83d\udc99 \ud83c\udf08) 1683088492
\u201cA man named Jordan Neely was choked to death in public on the subway this week while people watched and even cheered. This is horrific.\n\nThe constant demonization of poor people and people in mental health crisis in our city allows for this barbarism. It is making our city sick.\u201d— Julia Salazar (@Julia Salazar) 1683114633
\u201cThinking about the man who was strangled in the subway in NYC and my mind keeps circling back to \u201cthe lynchings worked\u201d thread. This is the mentality. White people shouldn\u2019t have to be uneasy, so executions are in order.\u201d— Plz Preorder Let This Radicalize You \ud83d\udd25 (@Plz Preorder Let This Radicalize You \ud83d\udd25) 1683115372
\u201cThe people who watched that Marine murder Jordan: who did nothing while he was choked to death, who sidestepped his lifeless body to leave the train, who sadistically cheered because our manufactured housing shortage convinced them that unhoused people are the threat. No words.\u201d— Zo\u00e9 (@Zo\u00e9) 1683119796
\u201cif you\u2019re in new york, you need to be paying attention to what happened to jordan neely. you need to understand how important bystander intervention is. and what you\u2019d do to step in if you witnessed someone being harmed. he was just a person asking for help.\u201d— elly belle \ud83d\udd2e (they/them) (@elly belle \ud83d\udd2e (they/them)) 1683117620
\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely blood on Eric Adams\u2019 hands in the murder of Jordan Neely. When from a position of authority you perpetuate a culture of wrangling unhoused people, especially those in mental distress, like a public nuisance instead of uplifting their humanity.\u201d— Dana White (@Dana White) 1683121293
The NYPD has shared Neely’s criminal history, which includes 40 arrests, and also revealed that he had documented issues with mental health. Officials were reportedly looking for Neely for an assault he was allegedly involved with in 2021.
