Homeless Man Strangled to Death on NYC Subway: Investigation Underway

LMonday, May 1, a homeless man, known to New York City residents, died of strangulation on the subway after an altercation with passengers. Thursday, May 4, New York justice opened an investigation into the death of this 30-year-old homeless man, named Jordan Neely, who had acquired a certain notoriety in the city with his imitation of singer Michael Jackson in the street. The news item, filmed, shakes the New York left.

Jordan Neely was the victim of a “homicide” by “compression” in the neck, New York forensic medicine told AFP. Alerted by passengers and by a video on social networks of an incident in the metro, the police had noted on Monday afternoon that a thirty-year-old African-American had lost “consciousness”. Taken to hospital, he died there shortly after, according to an email from law enforcement.

The suspect interrogated

The five-minute video, obtained by AFP, shows the victim on the ground in a subway car, another man – a 24-year-old marine corps soldier, according to media reports – lying behind him to shackle him and tighten your upper body. Other passengers standing near the two men look taken aback. A witness told AFP that Jordan Neely burst into the car, shouting at passengers and asking them for something to eat or drink.

Police briefly questioned the choke hold suspect and it is up to the New York State Attorney’s Office for the Borough of Manhattan to decide whether to prosecute criminally. “As part of our ongoing rigorous investigation, we will review the forensics report, all available photos and videos, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible,” a prosecutor’s office spokesperson said in an email Thursday. .

The left is outraged

Jordan Neely imitated Michael Jackson in the streets of downtown Manhattan, where he lived, and had been arrested dozens of times, in particular for uproar on the public highway, according to the press. In a megalopolis of 8.5 million inhabitants with abysmal socio-economic inequalities and which does not know what to do with tens of thousands of homeless people often suffering from psychiatric disorders, the left has stepped up to the plate.

The Democratic Congresswoman for New York, in the House of Representatives in Washington, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, wrote on Twitter that Jordan Neely had been the victim of a “murder”. New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams denounced in a statement “the ‘double standards’ faced by black people and people of color”.

More to the right in the Democratic Party, tough New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also African-American and a former police captain, told CNN that “any loss of life is tragic” but that “many elements of this happened remain unknown”. Dave Giffen, of the Coalition for the homeless association (which helps the homeless), denounced “the indifference of the municipality for the life of homeless people who have psychiatric disorders”.

Rallies are planned in New York on Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday to push Manhattan prosecutors to prosecute the alleged perpetrator.

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