Jordan Neely – latest: Family slams Daniel Penny’s ‘admission of guilt’ as 13 arrested in subway protest

Attorneys for the family of Jordan Neely have criticised a statement released by the firm representing Daniel Penny after the 30-year-old homeless street performer was fatally choked on a New York City subway on 1 May.

Neely was placed in a chokehold by the 24-year-old former Marine on a Manhattan F train after Neely allegedly threatened passengers. No charges have been filed. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating.

Attorneys for Mr Penny said in a statement on Friday that he “never intended to harm Mr Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death” after Mr Penny and two other passengers “acted to protect themselves”.

On Monday, attorneys for Neely’s family called the statement an “admission of guilt” and neither “an apology nor an expression of regret”.

The incident has sparked debates, protests and vigils across New York and on the city’s subway platforms, demanding justice in the days after the fatal incident and stressing the failure of a system meant to support people like Neely. At least 13 people were arrested in connection with a protest on Saturday at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street stop.

Key Points

• Jordan Neely’s family attorneys condemn ‘admission of guilt'

• 13 arrested in subway protest

• Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

• Ex-Marine hires Alvin Bragg’s former rival as prosecutors weigh charges

• Chokeholds banned by most police and federal agencies

Full story: Jordan Neely family attorneys call statement from Daniel Penny’s legal team ‘character assassination

21:30 , Alex Woodward

Attorneys for the family of Jordan Neely have criticised a statement from the legal team representing Daniel Perry, the 24-year-old former US Marine who placed the 30-year-old homeless street performer in a fatal chokehold on a Manhattan subway car one week ago.

“Daniel Penny’s press release is not an apology nor an expression of regret. It is a character assassination and a clear example of why he believed he was entitled to take Jordan’s life,” reads the statement on 8 May from attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards.

Jordan Neely family attorneys condemn statement from Daniel Penny’s legal team

Eric Adams has not talked to Neely’s family, attorneys say

20:51 , Alex Woodward

A statement from attorneys for the family of Jordan Neely suggests that Mayor Eric Adams has not talked with the family in the wake of his death.

“Mayor Eric Adams please give us a call. The family wants you to know that Jordan matters,” attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards wrote in a joint statement on Monday morning.

The Independent has requested comment from the mayor’s office.

The mayor is no stranger to public comment about subway violence, but he has declined to condemn lethal violence when it comes to the passenger who put Neely in a fatal chokehold.

“Each situation is different and how a passenger. We have so many cases where passengers assist other riders,” he said on CNN last week. “We cannot just blatantly say what a passenger should or should not do in a situation like that, and we should allow the investigation to take its course.”

Neely’s death is a ‘wake-up call’ for urgent response to mental health crisis, governor says

19:45 , Alex Woodward

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the death of Jordan Neely should serve as a “wake-up call” for government officials to urgently respond to a growing mental health crisis.

Her remarks on Monday came as she announced a $1bn pldge to update the state’s mental health programmes.

“People fall through the cracks. Sometimes they’re visible, sometimes you see them,” she said in remarks from Buffalo.

“And we think about the young man, Jordan Neely, who was in New York City in the throes of a crisis who was tragically killed on the subway this week. His death is clear evidence that we need support,” she added. “We need alternatives for these individuals so they’re not regulated to that kind of life. So those of us in government, it is a wake up call.”

Prosecutors meeting with detectives, medical examiner

18:45 , Alex Woodward

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office met to discuss the case over the weekend, according to CNN, and meetings are planned with detectives and the office of the medical examiner to determine next steps in an investigation into Neely’s death.

The district attorney’s office told The Independent last week that “senior, experienced prosecutors” are investigating Neely’s death.

“This is a solemn and serious matter that ended in the tragic loss of Jordan Neely’s life,” press secretary Douglas Cohen said. “As part of our rigorous ongoing investigation, we will review the [medical examiner’s] report, assess all available video and photo footage, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible, and obtain additional medical records.”

The investigation is reportedly being led by veteran homicide prosecutor Joshua Steinglass.

A criminal charge in Jordan Neely’s death could hinge on outcome of 1980s case

18:25 , Alex Woodward

Prosecutors could weigh criminal charges against the man who put Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold, though that likely will not include the charges of murder.

Charges could depend on whether a “reasonable” person would have acted similarly, according to legal experts.

A person who uses deadly force must not only prove that they feared for their own life or someone else’s but that any reasonable person would have felt the same way, under New York’s penal code.

“Suppose the Marine says, ‘I honest to God thought I had no choice but to save someone,’ the question would be whether an objectively reasonable person in his circumstances would have felt the same,” according to Mark Bederow, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, speaking to NBC New York.

The state’s highest court clarified that statute in 1986 in a case involving the Bernhard Goetz’s 1984 shooting of four teenagers on a subway.

The white pasenger shot four young Black men after one of them asked him for $5. He claimed that he thought he was being robbed. A jury ultimately acquitted Goetz of attempted murder but convicted him of carrying an unlicensed handgun.

Who is Daniel Penny?

17:55 , Alex Woodward

A former US Marine who choked Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway car has been identified as 24-year-old Daniel James Penny.

In a statement shared with The Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May, attorneys for Mr Penny said that when 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,” the statement added. “For too long, those suffering from mental illness have been treated with indifference. We hope that out of this awful tragedy will come a new commitment by our elected officials to address the mental health crisis on our streets and subways.”

What we know:

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

The man who filmed the fatal chokehold explains what he saw

17:27 , Alex Woodward

Journalist Juan Alberto Vasquez was traveling on the F train on his way from Brooklyn to Yonkers and intended to switch trains at the Broadway-Lafayette stop in Manhattan when he filmed Daniel Penny wrapping his arm around Jordan Neely’s neck in a chokehold for several minutes. Neely’s death was ruled a homicide by the city’s medical examiner due to the compression against Neely’s neck.

He told Curbed that Neely arrived on the train when it stopped at Second Avenue, stood in the middle of the train car, and then “started yelling that he didn’t have food, that he didn’t have water” and that “he was tired, that he didn’t care about going to jail.”

“I tried to start filming from that moment, but I didn’t because I couldn’t see anything — it was too crowded. And then I heard him take off his jacket. He bundled it up and just threw it on the floor, very violently. You could hear the sound of the zipper hitting the floor,” he added. “At that moment, when he threw the jacket, the people who were sitting around him stood up and moved away. He kept standing there and he kept yelling.”

At that moment, Mr Penny “came up behind him and grabbed him by the neck,” he said.

“They both fell. And then in like 30 seconds, I don’t know, we got to Broadway-Lafayette, and they were just there on the floor,” he said. “You ask how many people out of 100 would have dared to do something like that, and I think that 98 will say: ‘No, I would wait to see one more sign that indicates aggression.’”

Neely had testified at the trial of his mother’s killer

16:58 , Alex Woodward

Jordan Neely was 14 years old when his mother was murdered by her boyfriend.

That man, Shawn Southerland, refused to let Neely into a bedroom at the home to say goodbye before going to school, Neely testified to the court in New Jersey when he was 18 years old.

Southerland was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crime.

“He had to live with the fact that he left his mother dead in their home. So, that’s a lot to live with and he had troubles with that. But throughout his life, he was determined to make other people happy and that’s what he did,” Neely family attorney Donte Mills told MSNBC on 7 May.

Following his mother’s death, “he didn’t care anymore after that,” his father Andre Zachery told The New York Daily News. “They were very close. He loved her so much that he just lost it. After we buried her, he just wasn’t the same anymore.”

He dropped out of high school some time after that, according to the family.

Jordan Neely was known among outreach workers on a ‘top 50’ list

16:39 , Alex Woodward

Jordan Neely appeared on a list maintained by the New York City Department of Homeless Services known internally as the “top 50”, noting unhoused individuals with acute needs, according to CNN and The New York Times.

The list is maintained because those individuals tend to disappear, and outreach workers can know to notify the agency if they come into contact with them, the outlets reported.

The Independent has requested comment from Homeless Services.

Who was Jordan Neely?

16:19 , Alex Woodward

After his mother was murdered in 2007, Jordan Neely appeared to slip through the cracks of New York social services and healthcare facilities. He came to be known as an expert Michael Jackson impersonator, honing his act on the subway and in Times Square, his skills evident in a number of videos widely shared on social media in the wake of his death.

He also was known among social work teams involved in outreach to New York’s homeless community, and faced arrest numerous times, mostly for minor infractions like jumping turnstyles.

Neely was reportedly suffering a mental health crisis at the time of his death, with outreach workers noting his spiraling behaviour in the days leading up to the moment another passenger placed him in a fatal chokehold. He was killed on 1 May.

Jordan Neely, the man killed in a NYC subway chokehold

Neely’s family attorneys slam statement from Penny’s attorneys as ‘admission of guilt'

14:39 , Alex Woodward

Attorneys for the family of Jordan Neely has criticised a statement from the firm representing Daniel Penny, accused of killing Neely using a fatal chokehold on a Manhattan subway one week ago.

“Daniel Penny’s press release is not an apology nor an expression of regret. It is a character assassination and a clear example of why he believed he was entitled to take Jordan’s life,” according to the statement from attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards, who called the statement from Mr Penny’s attorneys “an admission of guilty”.

The statement from Mr Penny’s attorneys said Neely “had a documented history of violent and erratic behavior, the apparent result of ongoing and untreated mental illness” and “began aggressively threatening” Mr Penny and others. The statement says Mr Penny and other passengers “acted to protect themselves, until help arrived” and “never intended to harm Mr Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”

“The truth is, he knew nothing about Jordan’s history when he intentionally wrapped his arms around Jordan’s neck, and squeezed and kept squeezing,” Neely’s family attorneys stated.

“In the last paragraph, Daniel Penny suggests that the general public has shown ‘indifference’ for people like Jordan, but that term is more appropriately used to describe himself. It is clear he is the one who acted with indifference, both at the time he killed Jordan and now in his first public message,” the statement added.

“He never attempted to help him at all. In short, his actions on the train, and now his words, show why he needs to be in prison,” the attorneys said.

13 arrested in subway protest

13:00 , Bevan Hurley

Protesters flooded the NYC subway system to demonstrate against the killing of Jordan Neely, with at least seven people arrested after clashes with police.

Dozens of demonstrators leapt on to subway tracks at Lexington Avenue and East 63rd St at around 6.30pm, forcing a Q train driver to slam on the brakes as he entered the station, according to a video posted to Twitter.

Thirteen protesters were arrested on charges including resisting arrest, assault, trespass and unlawful interference of a railroad train, the NYPD said.

New York was not a ‘safe city’ for Jordan Neely

12:00 , Bevan Hurley

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

“On Monday, a Black houseless man with a history of mental illness, Jordan Neely, was shouting at passengers on the New York subway. Witnesses said he did not physically assault or harm anyone. But a so-far unnamed white 24-year-old ex-Marine decided Neely needed to be subdued. He put him in a neckhold and, as bystanders watched, he choked Neely to death.

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely. Democratic State Senator Julia Salazar compared his horrific killing to a lynching – the public extermination of a Black, marginalized person in the name of restoring public order.

Though Neely was not killed by the police, his death painfully shows how mainstream rhetoric of policing, order, and safety all frame marginalized people as innately unsafe. From this viewpoint, “safety” means hiding, quelling, or even outright eliminating certain marginalized populations – Black people, homeless people, mentally ill people, poor people.

Conservatives and centrists often attack progressives for not being sufficiently concerned with public safety. “Defund the police” is caricatured as a reckless abandonment of public order. It’s attacked as an unserious, utopian endeavor by people who don’t care about the safety of (supposedly) normal people.”

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely | Voices

Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

11:00 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely suffered from “demons” after his mother was murdered in 2007, a lawyer for his family says.

Attorney Donte Mills told Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation that Neely had been living with his mother and her boyfriend Shawn Southerland at the time of her killing.

He learned his mother had died and tried to say goodbye to her before leaving for school, but was blocked from entering her bedroom by Southerland.

“He had to live with the fact that he left his mother dead in their home,” Mr Mills told MSNBC.

“So, that’s a lot to live with and he had troubles with that.”

Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

New York prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Alvin Bragg’s former rival

09:00 , Bevan Hurley

Prosecutors could bring manslaughter charges against a subway passenger who choked a homeless man to death, according to legal experts, as New Yorkers plead for justice in the wake of the killing ofJordan Neely on a Manhattan F train.

A grand jury could determine whether criminal charges are brought against the man who was filmed with his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck, according to officials speaking with several New York outlets.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told ABC News that the case is likely to go to a grand jury, which would convene to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Detectives have reportedly interviewed several witnesses and are looking to talk to “four or five more” who were close to the scene, according to the network.

Daniel Penny, who was filmed with his arm around Neely’s neck, has retained legal representation from attorneys with the firm Raiser and Kenniff. Mr Penny has not been charged with any crime.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Bragg’s former rival

Jordan Neely testified at trial after his mother was murdered in 2007

08:00 , Bevan Hurley

Relatives of Jordan Neely have spoken out following the killing of the 30-year-old homeless man in an incident on the New York subway.

His father, Andrew Zachary, told The New York Daily News that Neely’s mother had been murdered by her boyfriend when he was 18 years old, back in 2007.

Christie Neely’s boyfriend was reportedly convicted in 2012 of strangling her and was sentenced to three decades behind bars.

Gustaf Kilander has more details.

Relatives speak out after Jordan Neely subway chokehold killing

Jordan Neely identified as NYC’s list of ‘homeless individuals with dire needs’

07:30 , Namita Singh

Jordan Neely was on a list of homeless people identified as having dire needs, reported CNN citing sources.

The list, maintained by the New York City Department of Homeless Service, though not made public, is compiled in the hope that outreach organisations will lookout for the individuals and inform the department in case there is a need for intervention.

Kayleigh McEnany mocks protesters marching against killing of Jordan Neely

07:00 , Bevan Hurley

Fox News anchor and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appeared to use racist tropes to mock demonstrators who took to the street in New York City in recent days to protest the killing of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man who was choked to death by a white former Marine.

On Friday, after showing a clip of activists chanting, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now” and other slogans to the beat of a drum, Ms McEnany cracked a smile and said, “Well, at least they have rhythm,” eliciting laughs from her cohosts.

The Fox anchor also condemned people who have “already made up their minds” about the killing, in which 24-year-old Daniel J Penny was filmed choking Neely for an estimated 15 minutes.

Kat Abughazaleh, an analyst at watchdog group Media Matters for America, said Ms McEnany’s rhetoric “mocks Black people protesting the killing of Jordan Neely.”

Ms McEnany didn’t know what race the protesters were and didn’t actually see the video being played on air when she made her comment, the anchor said in a statement to The Independent through a network spokesperson.

Josh Marcus has the story.

Kayleigh McEnany mocks Jordan Neely protests on Fox: ‘At least they have rhythm’

Police ask for photographs and videos of Jordan Neely death

05:00 , Bevan Hurley

The NYPD are appealing for information, photographs, or video of Jordan Neely’s death at the Broadway-Lafayette Street subway station last Monday.

Mr Neely’s death has been ruled a homicide, and the man who placed him in a chokehold as been identified as former US Marine Daniel Penny.

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating his death.

Who was Jordan Neely?

04:00 , Bevan Hurley

After his mother was murdered when he was 14, Jordan Neely became an expert Michael Jackson impersonator, performing on the subway and in Times Square, his skills evident in a number of videos widely shared on social media in the wake of his death.

Joe Sommerlad reports.

Jordan Neely, the man killed in a NYC subway chokehold

Watch: Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

03:00 , Bevan Hurley

A Fox News audience member cheered as Sean Hannity referred to a US marine who placed a homeless passenger in a chokehold on the New York City subway.

Jordan Neely was pinned to the ground on Monday, 1 May, after apparently suffering a mental health episode and later died.

As the host played footage of the incident, he said: “After making violent threats... a mentally ill homeless guy with a long history of violent crime was, well, subdued by a bystander, a 24-year-old Marine vet.”

Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

New York was not a ‘safe city’ for Jordan Neely

02:00 , Bevan Hurley

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

“On Monday, a Black houseless man with a history of mental illness, Jordan Neely, was shouting at passengers on the New York subway. Witnesses said he did not physically assault or harm anyone. But a so-far unnamed white 24-year-old ex-Marine decided Neely needed to be subdued. He put him in a neckhold and, as bystanders watched, he choked Neely to death.

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely. Democratic State Senator Julia Salazar compared his horrific killing to a lynching – the public extermination of a Black, marginalized person in the name of restoring public order.

Though Neely was not killed by the police, his death painfully shows how mainstream rhetoric of policing, order, and safety all frame marginalized people as innately unsafe. From this viewpoint, “safety” means hiding, quelling, or even outright eliminating certain marginalized populations – Black people, homeless people, mentally ill people, poor people.

Conservatives and centrists often attack progressives for not being sufficiently concerned with public safety. “Defund the police” is caricatured as a reckless abandonment of public order. It’s attacked as an unserious, utopian endeavor by people who don’t care about the safety of (supposedly) normal people.”

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely | Voices

Greg Gutfeld blames Jordan Neely subway chokehold death on George Floyd

01:00 , Bevan Hurley

Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld has blamed the death of a homeless Black man put into a chokehold by an ex-marine in a New York City subway train, on the murder of George Floyd.

“If anybody says this is like George Floyd, no, it’s because of George Floyd,” he said on The Five on Thursday.

“Because since George Floyd, we’ve had the resulting chaos, the defunding, the emasculation of the police – egged on by The Squad, by the media, by different media outlets, except CNN. That created the pathway and a void where you saw fewer police.”

Full story below.

Fox’s Greg Gutfeld blames Jordan Neely subway chokehold death on George Floyd

13 arrested in subway protest

Monday 8 May 2023 00:00 , Bevan Hurley

Protesters flooded the NYC subway system to demonstrate against the killing of Jordan Neely, with at least seven people arrested after clashes with police.

Dozens of demonstrators leapt on to subway tracks at Lexington Avenue and East 63rd St at around 6.30pm, forcing a Q train driver to slam on the brakes as he entered the station, according to a video posted to Twitter.

Thirteen protesters were arrested on charges including resisting arrest, assault, trespass and unlawful interference of a railroad train, the NYPD said.

Who is Daniel Perry?

Sunday 7 May 2023 23:00 , Bevan Hurley

According to US Marine Corps records and a LinkedIn profile, Daniel Penny joined the Marines in 2017 after graduating from West Islip High School, a hamlet roughly 36 miles outside of Manhattan in Suffolk County.

Public records confirm Mr Penny’s former address at Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. He served as an infantryman and a sergeant.

He left the Marines in 2021. He wrote in a service industry job site that his military experience helped him discover that he is “passionate” about “helping, communicating, and connecting to different people from all over the world.”

Photographs on a profile on the hiking website All Trails that appears to belong to Mr Penny also how his visits to trails across New England, Hawaii, Honduras, and North Carolina.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

Sunday 7 May 2023 22:30 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely suffered from “demons” after his mother was murdered in 2007, a lawyer for his family says.

Attorney Donte Mills told Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation that Neely had been living with his mother and her boyfriend Shawn Southerland at the time of her killing.

He learned his mother had died and tried to say goodbye to her before leaving for school, but was blocked from entering her bedroom by Southerland.

“He had to live with the fact that he left his mother dead in their home,” Mr Mills told MSNBC.

“So, that’s a lot to live with and he had troubles with that.”

Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

Jordan Neely wanted help. A brutal narrative about homelessness blamed him for his own death

Sunday 7 May 2023 22:00 , Bevan Hurley

On a Monday afternoon F train in Manhattan, a passenger wrestled another man to the ground and wrapped his arm around his neck for several minutes. He died moments later.

Jordan Neely’s death was recorded by another passenger and preserved in a widely shared video. The 24-year-old former US Marine who placed Neely in a chokehold was identified by his attorneys on 5 May as Daniel Penny. He was released from police custody after the incident without any charge.

His cause of death was a homicide. The 30-year-old Black man – known for his precise Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms while experiencing homelessness in New York City – died from the compression against his neck, according to the city’s medical examiner.

New Yorkers are no strangers to unstable or disruptive people who ride the city’s 6,500 subway cars; subway riders typically keep to themselves and ignore them.

But Neely’s death has revived volatile media narratives about New York’s homeless population, spinning an act of vigilantism to blame the person killed by it. The mayor and governor have not explicitly condemned the act of lethal violence, raising questions among New York leaders whether the city considers the life of a homeless Black man less valuable than a white stranger prepared to use deadly force.

Alex Woodward reports on how damaging rhetoric and policy failures have exposed thousands of homeless Americans to vigilante violence.

Jordan Neely’s death underscores a brutal New York narrative

Police ask for photographs and videos of Jordan Neely death

Sunday 7 May 2023 21:30 , Bevan Hurley

The NYPD are appealing for information, photographs, or video of Jordan Neely’s death at the Broadway-Lafayette Street subway station last Monday.

Mr Neely’s death has been ruled a homicide, and the man who placed him in a chokehold as been identified as former US Marine Daniel Penny.

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating his death.

Daniel Penny’s attorneys say he ‘never intended to harm’ Jordan Neely

Sunday 7 May 2023 21:00 , Bevan Hurley

Attorneys for Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old former US Marine who was captured on bystander video fatally choking Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train, have released a statement that both confirms his identity and claims that Mr Penny and others “acted to protect themselves” from the homeless street performer.

Mr Penny is represented by attorneys from Raiser and Kenniff.

“Earlier this week Daniel Penny was involved in a tragic incident ... which ended in the death of Jordan Neely. We would first like to express, on behalf of Daniel Penny, our condolences to those close to Mr Neely,” according to a statement shared withThe Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May.

Alex Woodward has the details.

Daniel Penny ‘never intended to harm’ Jordan Neely after fatal chokehold: attorneys

New York prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death

Sunday 7 May 2023 20:30 , Bevan Hurley

Prosecutors could bring manslaughter charges against a subway passenger who choked a homeless man to death, according to legal experts, as New Yorkers plead for justice in the wake of the killing ofJordan Neely on a Manhattan F train.

A grand jury could determine whether criminal charges are brought against the man who was filmed with his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck, according to officials speaking with several New York outlets.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told ABC News that the case is likely to go to a grand jury, which would convene to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Detectives have reportedly interviewed several witnesses and are looking to talk to “four or five more” who were close to the scene, according to the network.

Daniel Penny, who was filmed with his arm around Neely’s neck, has retained legal representation from attorneys with the firm Raiser and Kenniff. Mr Penny has not been charged with any crime.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Bragg’s former rival

Daniel Penny’s attorneys say he ‘never intended to harm’ Jordan Neely

Sunday 7 May 2023 19:30 , Bevan Hurley

Attorneys for Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old former US Marine who was captured on bystander video fatally choking Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train, have released a statement that both confirms his identity and claims that Mr Penny and others “acted to protect themselves” from the homeless street performer.

Mr Penny is represented by attorneys from Raiser and Kenniff.

“Earlier this week Daniel Penny was involved in a tragic incident ... which ended in the death of Jordan Neely. We would first like to express, on behalf of Daniel Penny, our condolences to those close to Mr Neely,” according to a statement shared withThe Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May.

Alex Woodward has the details.

Daniel Penny ‘never intended to harm’ Jordan Neely after fatal chokehold: attorneys

Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

Sunday 7 May 2023 19:00 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely suffered from “demons” after his mother was murdered in 2007, a lawyer for his family says.

Neely, 30, died on Monday after he was placed in a chokehold on a New York City subway train by ex-Marine Daniel Penny.

Neely was just 14 when his mother Christine Neely was strangled, stuffed in a suitcase and left on the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York by her former partner.

Family members say Jordan Neely fell into a deep depression and never fully recovered from the tragedy, and was homeless at the time of his death.

Jordan Neely struggled after his mother’s murder, family attorney says

Police ask for photographs and videos of Jordan Neely death

Sunday 7 May 2023 18:30 , Bevan Hurley

The NYPD are appealing for information, photographs, or video of Jordan Neely’s death at the Broadway-Lafayette Street subway station last Monday.

Mr Neely’s death has been ruled a homicide, and the man who placed him in a chokehold as been identified as former US Marine Daniel Penny.

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating his death.

Seven arrests as protestors jump onto subway tracks in New York

Sunday 7 May 2023 18:00 , Bevan Hurley

Protesters flooded the NYC subway system to demonstrate against the killing of Jordan Neely, with at least seven people arrested after clashes with police.

Dozens of demonstrators leapt on to subway tracks at Lexington Avenue and East 63rd St at around 6.30pm, forcing a Q train driver to slam on the brakes as he entered the station, according to a video posted to Twitter.

Jordan Neely wanted help. A brutal narrative about homelessness blamed him for his own death

Sunday 7 May 2023 17:30 , Bevan Hurley

On a Monday afternoon F train in Manhattan, a passenger wrestled another man to the ground and wrapped his arm around his neck for several minutes. He died moments later.

Jordan Neely’s death was recorded by another passenger and preserved in a widely shared video. The 24-year-old former US Marine who placed Neely in a chokehold was identified by his attorneys on 5 May as Daniel Penny. He was released from police custody after the incident without any charge.

His cause of death was a homicide. The 30-year-old Black man – known for his precise Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms while experiencing homelessness in New York City – died from the compression against his neck, according to the city’s medical examiner.

New Yorkers are no strangers to unstable or disruptive people who ride the city’s 6,500 subway cars; subway riders typically keep to themselves and ignore them.

But Neely’s death has revived volatile media narratives about New York’s homeless population, spinning an act of vigilantism to blame the person killed by it. The mayor and governor have not explicitly condemned the act of lethal violence, raising questions among New York leaders whether the city considers the life of a homeless Black man less valuable than a white stranger prepared to use deadly force.

Alex Woodward reports on how damaging rhetoric and policy failures have exposed thousands of homeless Americans to vigilante violence.

Jordan Neely’s death underscores a brutal New York narrative

Everything we know about Daniel Perry

Sunday 7 May 2023 17:00 , Bevan Hurley

According to US Marine Corps records and a LinkedIn profile, Daniel Penny joined the Marines in 2017 after graduating from West Islip High School, a hamlet roughly 36 miles outside of Manhattan in Suffolk County.

Public records confirm Mr Penny’s former address at Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. He served as an infantryman and a sergeant.

He left the Marines in 2021. He wrote in a service industry job site that his military experience helped him discover that he is “passionate” about “helping, communicating, and connecting to different people from all over the world.”

Photographs on a profile on the hiking website All Trails that appears to belong to Mr Penny also how his visits to trails across New England, Hawaii, Honduras, and North Carolina.

Alex Woodward has the story.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

Daniel Penny’s attorneys say he ‘never intended to harm’ Jordan Neely

Sunday 7 May 2023 16:30 , Bevan Hurley

Attorneys for Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old former US Marine who was captured on bystander video fatally choking Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train, have released a statement that both confirms his identity and claims that Mr Penny and others “acted to protect themselves” from the homeless street performer.

Mr Penny is represented by attorneys from Raiser and Kenniff.

“Earlier this week Daniel Penny was involved in a tragic incident ... which ended in the death of Jordan Neely. We would first like to express, on behalf of Daniel Penny, our condolences to those close to Mr Neely,” according to a statement shared withThe Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May.

Alex Woodward has the details.

Daniel Penny ‘never intended to harm’ Jordan Neely after fatal chokehold: attorneys

Jordan Neely ‘had demons’ after mother’s murder, family attorney says

Sunday 7 May 2023 16:05 , Bevan Hurley

A lawyer for the family of Jordan Neely says he suffered from “demons” after the murder of his mother in 2007.

Neely was just 14 when his mother Christine Neely was strangled by her boyfriend Shawn Southerland and dumped in a suitcase on the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Donte Mills told MSNBC that Neely had tried to say goodbye to his mother before leaving for school, but was blocked from entering her bedroom by Southerland.

He testified at Southerland’s murder trial at the age of 18.

“He had to live with the fact that he left his mother dead in their home,” Mr Mills told MSNBC.

“So, that’s a lot to live with and he had troubles with that. But throughout his life, he was determined to make other people happy and that’s what he did.”

Watch: Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

Sunday 7 May 2023 15:43 , Bevan Hurley

A Fox News audience member cheered as Sean Hannity referred to a US marine who placed a homeless passenger in a chokehold on the New York City subway.

Jordan Neely was pinned to the ground on Monday, 1 May, after apparently suffering a mental health episode and later died.

As the host played footage of the incident, he said: “After making violent threats... a mentally ill homeless guy with a long history of violent crime was, well, subdued by a bystander, a 24-year-old Marine vet.”

New York was not a ‘safe city’ for Jordan Neely

Sunday 7 May 2023 15:00 , Bevan Hurley

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

“On Monday, a Black houseless man with a history of mental illness, Jordan Neely, was shouting at passengers on the New York subway. Witnesses said he did not physically assault or harm anyone. But a so-far unnamed white 24-year-old ex-Marine decided Neely needed to be subdued. He put him in a neckhold and, as bystanders watched, he choked Neely to death.

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely. Democratic State Senator Julia Salazar compared his horrific killing to a lynching – the public extermination of a Black, marginalized person in the name of restoring public order.

Though Neely was not killed by the police, his death painfully shows how mainstream rhetoric of policing, order, and safety all frame marginalized people as innately unsafe. From this viewpoint, “safety” means hiding, quelling, or even outright eliminating certain marginalized populations – Black people, homeless people, mentally ill people, poor people.

Conservatives and centrists often attack progressives for not being sufficiently concerned with public safety. “Defund the police” is caricatured as a reckless abandonment of public order. It’s attacked as an unserious, utopian endeavor by people who don’t care about the safety of (supposedly) normal people.”

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely | Voices

New York prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death

Sunday 7 May 2023 14:30 , Bevan Hurley

Prosecutors could bring manslaughter charges against a subway passenger who choked a homeless man to death, according to legal experts, as New Yorkers plead for justice in the wake of the killing ofJordan Neely on a Manhattan F train.

A grand jury could determine whether criminal charges are brought against the man who was filmed with his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck, according to officials speaking with several New York outlets.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told ABC News that the case is likely to go to a grand jury, which would convene to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Detectives have reportedly interviewed several witnesses and are looking to talk to “four or five more” who were close to the scene, according to the network.

Daniel Penny, who was filmed with his arm around Neely’s neck, has retained legal representation from attorneys with the firm Raiser and Kenniff. Mr Penny has not been charged with any crime.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Bragg’s former rival

Seven arrests as protestors jump onto subway tracks in New York

Sunday 7 May 2023 14:09 , Bevan Hurley

Protesters flooded the NYC subway system to demonstrate against the killing of Jordan Neely, with at least seven people arrested after clashes with police.

Dozens of demonstrators leapt on to subway tracks at Lexington Avenue and East 63rd St at around 6.30pm, forcing a Q train driver to slam on the brakes as he entered the station, according to a video posted to Twitter.

Who was Jordan Neely, the man killed in a NYC subway chokehold?

Sunday 7 May 2023 13:00 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely, 30, died after being held in chokehold by member of the public on a subway train on Monday afternoon, sparking angry protests and outrage.

Joe Sommerlad reports on how, after his mother was murdered, Neely had to testify at her ex-partner’s trial at the age of 18.

After experiencing homelessness, Neely became an expert Michael Jackson impersonator.

Jordan Neely, the man killed in a NYC subway chokehold

Who is Daniel Penny?

Sunday 7 May 2023 12:00 , Bevan Hurley

A former US Marine who choked Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway car has been identified as 24-year-old Daniel James Penny.

Neely’s death was ruled by the New York medical examiner’s office as a homicide due to compression against his neck. Video footage and eyewitness accounts show a man believed to be Mr Penny with his arm wrapped around Neely for several minutes until his eyes shut and body goes limp.

New York City Police Department officers attempted CPR upon arrival on the F train at the Broadway-Lafayette platform in Manhattan on 1 May, according to an incident report reviewed by The Independent. Neely was pronounced dead at Lenox Health Greenwich Village hospital.

In a statement shared with The Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May, attorneys for Mr Penny said that when 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,” the statement added.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

Fox’s Greg Gutfeld blames Jordan Neely subway chokehold death on George Floyd

Sunday 7 May 2023 11:00 , Bevan Hurley

Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld has blamed the death of a homeless Black man put into a chokehold by an ex-marine in a New York City subway train, on the murder of George Floyd.

The death of Jordan Neely, who had complained of hunger and thirst, shocked and horrified scores of Americans who blamed the incident on the dehumanisation of not just Black communities but homeless members of society as well.

Abe Asher has the story.

Fox’s Greg Gutfeld blames Jordan Neely subway chokehold death on George Floyd

Watch: Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

Sunday 7 May 2023 10:00 , Bevan Hurley

A Fox News audience member cheered as Sean Hannity referred to a US marine who placed a homeless passenger in a chokehold on the New York City subway.

Jordan Neely was pinned to the ground on Monday, 1 May, after apparently suffering a mental health episode and later died.

As the host played footage of the incident, he said: “After making violent threats... a mentally ill homeless guy with a long history of violent crime was, well, subdued by a bystander, a 24-year-old Marine vet.”

Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

New York prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Alvin Bragg’s former rival

Sunday 7 May 2023 09:00 , Bevan Hurley

Prosecutors could bring manslaughter charges against a subway passenger who choked a homeless man to death, according to legal experts, as New Yorkers plead for justice in the wake of the killing ofJordan Neely on a Manhattan F train.

A grand jury could determine whether criminal charges are brought against the man who was filmed with his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck, according to officials speaking with several New York outlets.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told ABC News that the case is likely to go to a grand jury, which would convene to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Detectives have reportedly interviewed several witnesses and are looking to talk to “four or five more” who were close to the scene, according to the network.

Daniel Penny, who was filmed with his arm around Neely’s neck, has retained legal representation from attorneys with the firm Raiser and Kenniff. Mr Penny has not been charged with any crime.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Bragg’s former rival

Jordan Neely’s mother testified at trial after his mother was murdered in 2007

Sunday 7 May 2023 08:00 , Bevan Hurley

Relatives of Jordan Neely have spoken out following the killing of the 30-year-old homeless man in an incident on the New York subway.

His father, Andrew Zachary, told The New York Daily News that Neely’s mother had been murdered by her boyfriend when he was 18 years old, back in 2007.

Christie Neely’s boyfriend was reportedly convicted in 2012 of strangling her and was sentenced to three decades behind bars.

Read my colleague Gustaf Kilander‘s full story here.

Relatives speak out after Jordan Neely subway chokehold killing

New York was not a ‘safe city’ for Jordan Neely

Sunday 7 May 2023 07:00 , Bevan Hurley

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

“On Monday, a Black houseless man with a history of mental illness, Jordan Neely, was shouting at passengers on the New York subway. Witnesses said he did not physically assault or harm anyone. But a so-far unnamed white 24-year-old ex-Marine decided Neely needed to be subdued. He put him in a neckhold and, as bystanders watched, he choked Neely to death.

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely. Democratic State Senator Julia Salazar compared his horrific killing to a lynching – the public extermination of a Black, marginalized person in the name of restoring public order.

Though Neely was not killed by the police, his death painfully shows how mainstream rhetoric of policing, order, and safety all frame marginalized people as innately unsafe. From this viewpoint, “safety” means hiding, quelling, or even outright eliminating certain marginalized populations – Black people, homeless people, mentally ill people, poor people.

Conservatives and centrists often attack progressives for not being sufficiently concerned with public safety. “Defund the police” is caricatured as a reckless abandonment of public order. It’s attacked as an unserious, utopian endeavor by people who don’t care about the safety of (supposedly) normal people.”

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely | Voices

A chokehold on the nation’s homeless

Sunday 7 May 2023 06:00 , Bevan Hurley

Washington Post columnist Theresa Vargas writes that the killing of Jordan Neely has “ignited justifiable anger, grief and outrage”.

“As of Friday much still remained uncertain, including whether the men who restrained him would face charges, but this much was clear: Neely should be alive. He needed help in that moment, and long before that moment, and he didn’t get it,” Ms Vargas wrote.

“We are bystanders every day, watching people who are unhoused succumb to a slow chokehold. Jordan Neely was a unique individual with unique skills and unique struggles. But in D.C. and other major cities across the country, there are many people like him, and we know they are dying in preventable and premature ways.”

Jordan Neely’s father on his Michael Jackson impression

Sunday 7 May 2023 05:00 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely’s father Andrew Zachary told The New York Daily News that he hadn’t seen his son in four years.

But one thing stood out in his memory: Neely’s “great” impression of Michael Jackson.

“I sat him in front of the TV and showed him the Jackson 5,” Mr Zachary said. “He took on the Michael Jackson thing and he really formed it very well....

“Jordan was a good man. He was a good person. He grew up good. He always had a [temper], but he never used to hurt anyone. He wasn’t bad. He was beautiful.”

Speaking about his son performing as Michael Jackson, he said, “He looked just like him. He used to perform on the block. One day, people were loving him”.

Mr Zachary said his son was deeply affected by the murder of mother in 2007.

“He didn’t care anymore after that,” he told the Daily News. “Once his mother died ... They were very close. He loved her so much that he just lost it. After we buried her, he just wasn’t the same anymore.”

Everything we know about the man filmed choking Jordan Neely in fatal subway incident

Sunday 7 May 2023 04:00 , Bevan Hurley

Here’s a recap of what we know so far about Daniel Penny, who has been identified as the man captured in a widely shared video with his arm wrapped around Jordan Neely’s neck for several minutes.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

Jordan Neely wanted help. A brutal narrative about homelessness blamed him for his own death

Sunday 7 May 2023 03:00 , Bevan Hurley

On a Monday afternoon F train in Manhattan, a passenger wrestled another man to the ground and wrapped his arm around his neck for several minutes. He died moments later.

Jordan Neely’s death was recorded by another passenger and preserved in a widely shared video. The 24-year-old former US Marine who placed Neely in a chokehold was identified by his attorneys on 5 May as Daniel Penny. He was released from police custody after the incident without any charge.

His cause of death was a homicide. The 30-year-old Black man – known for his precise Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms while experiencing homelessness in New York City – died from the compression against his neck, according to the city’s medical examiner.

New Yorkers are no strangers to unstable or disruptive people who ride the city’s 6,500 subway cars; subway riders typically keep to themselves and ignore them.

But Neely’s death has revived volatile media narratives about New York’s homeless population, spinning an act of vigilantism to blame the person killed by it. The mayor and governor have not explicitly condemned the act of lethal violence, raising questions among New York leaders whether the city considers the life of a homeless Black man less valuable than a white stranger prepared to use deadly force.

Alex Woodward reports on how damaging rhetoric and policy failures have exposed thousands of homeless Americans to vigilante violence.

Jordan Neely’s death underscores a brutal New York narrative

Kayleigh McEnany mocks protesters marching against killing of Jordan Neely

Sunday 7 May 2023 02:00 , Bevan Hurley

Fox News anchor and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appeared to use racist tropes to mock demonstrators who took to the street in New York City in recent days to protest the killing of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man who was choked to death by a white former Marine.

On Friday, after showing a clip of activists chanting, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now” and other slogans to the beat of a drum, Ms McEnany cracked a smile and said, “Well, at least they have rhythm,” eliciting laughs from her cohosts.

The Fox anchor also condemned people who have “already made up their minds” about the killing, in which 24-year-old Daniel J Penny was filmed choking Neely for an estimated 15 minutes.

Kat Abughazaleh, an analyst at watchdog group Media Matters for America, said Ms McEnany’s rhetoric “mocks Black people protesting the killing of Jordan Neely.”

Ms McEnany didn’t know what race the protesters were and didn’t actually see the video being played on air when she made her comment, the anchor said in a statement to The Independent through a network spokesperson.

Josh Marcus has the story.

Kayleigh McEnany mocks Jordan Neely protests on Fox: ‘At least they have rhythm’

Sunday 7 May 2023 01:00 , Bevan Hurley

Charges in NYC chokehold death may hinge on ‘reasonableness’

A former Manhattan assistant district attorney tells the Associated Press that a decision on whether to lay charges over Jordan Neely’s death could hinge on a “tricky” law over whether subway passengers feared for their own life or someone else’s.

“Suppose the Marine says, ‘I honest to God thought I had no choice but to save someone,’ the question would be whether an objectively reasonable person in his circumstances would have felt the same,” Mark Bederow said.

Charges in NYC chokehold death may hinge on 'reasonableness'

New York prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Alvin Bragg’s former rival

Sunday 7 May 2023 00:30 , Bevan Hurley

Prosecutors could bring manslaughter charges against a subway passenger who choked a homeless man to death, according to legal experts, as New Yorkers plead for justice in the wake of the killing ofJordan Neely on a Manhattan F train.

A grand jury could determine whether criminal charges are brought against the man who was filmed with his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck, according to officials speaking with several New York outlets.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told ABC News that the case is likely to go to a grand jury, which would convene to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Detectives have reportedly interviewed several witnesses and are looking to talk to “four or five more” who were close to the scene, according to the network.

Daniel Penny, who was filmed with his arm around Neely’s neck, has retained legal representation from attorneys with the firm Raiser and Kenniff. Mr Penny has not been charged with any crime.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Prosecutors investigate Jordan Neely’s death as ex-Marine hires Bragg’s former rival

Watch: Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

Saturday 6 May 2023 23:55 , Bevan Hurley

A Fox News audience member cheered as Sean Hannity referred to a US marine who placed a homeless passenger in a chokehold on the New York City subway.

Jordan Neely was pinned to the ground on Monday, 1 May, after apparently suffering a mental health episode and later died.

As the host played footage of the incident, he said: “After making violent threats... a mentally ill homeless guy with a long history of violent crime was, well, subdued by a bystander, a 24-year-old Marine vet.”

Sean Hannity audience member ‘cheers’ NYC subway rider who killed homeless passenger

New York was not a ‘safe city’ for Jordan Neely

Saturday 6 May 2023 23:30 , Bevan Hurley

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

“On Monday, a Black houseless man with a history of mental illness, Jordan Neely, was shouting at passengers on the New York subway. Witnesses said he did not physically assault or harm anyone. But a so-far unnamed white 24-year-old ex-Marine decided Neely needed to be subdued. He put him in a neckhold and, as bystanders watched, he choked Neely to death.

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely. Democratic State Senator Julia Salazar compared his horrific killing to a lynching – the public extermination of a Black, marginalized person in the name of restoring public order.

Though Neely was not killed by the police, his death painfully shows how mainstream rhetoric of policing, order, and safety all frame marginalized people as innately unsafe. From this viewpoint, “safety” means hiding, quelling, or even outright eliminating certain marginalized populations – Black people, homeless people, mentally ill people, poor people.

Conservatives and centrists often attack progressives for not being sufficiently concerned with public safety. “Defund the police” is caricatured as a reckless abandonment of public order. It’s attacked as an unserious, utopian endeavor by people who don’t care about the safety of (supposedly) normal people.”

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely | Voices

Who is Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine filmed choking Jordan Neely?

Saturday 6 May 2023 23:00 , Bevan Hurley

A former US Marine who choked Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway car has been identified as 24-year-old Daniel James Penny.

Neely’s death was ruled by the New York medical examiner’s office as a homicide due to compression against his neck. Video footage and eyewitness accounts show a man believed to be Mr Penny with his arm wrapped around Neely for several minutes until his eyes shut and body goes limp.

New York City Police Department officers attempted CPR upon arrival on the F train at the Broadway-Lafayette platform in Manhattan on 1 May, according to an incident report reviewed by The Independent. Neely was pronounced dead at Lenox Health Greenwich Village hospital.

In a statement shared with The Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May, attorneys for Mr Penny said that when 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,” the statement added.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

A chokehold on the nation’s homeless

Saturday 6 May 2023 22:30 , Bevan Hurley

Washington Post columnist Theresa Vargas writes that the killing of Jordan Neely has “ignited justifiable anger, grief and outrage”.

“As of Friday much still remained uncertain, including whether the men who restrained him would face charges, but this much was clear: Neely should be alive. He needed help in that moment, and long before that moment, and he didn’t get it,” Ms Vargas wrote.

“We are bystanders every day, watching people who are unhoused succumb to a slow chokehold. Jordan Neely was a unique individual with unique skills and unique struggles. But in D.C. and other major cities across the country, there are many people like him, and we know they are dying in preventable and premature ways.”

Who is Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine filmed choking Jordan Neely?

Saturday 6 May 2023 22:00 , Bevan Hurley

A former US Marine who choked Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway car has been identified as 24-year-old Daniel James Penny.

Neely’s death was ruled by the New York medical examiner’s office as a homicide due to compression against his neck. Video footage and eyewitness accounts show a man believed to be Mr Penny with his arm wrapped around Neely for several minutes until his eyes shut and body goes limp.

New York City Police Department officers attempted CPR upon arrival on the F train at the Broadway-Lafayette platform in Manhattan on 1 May, according to an incident report reviewed by The Independent. Neely was pronounced dead at Lenox Health Greenwich Village hospital.

In a statement shared with The Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May, attorneys for Mr Penny said that when 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,” the statement added.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

‘Discomfort is no excuse for violence'

Saturday 6 May 2023 21:25 , Bevan Hurley

Jamelle Bouie writes in the New York Times that nothing Jordan Neely did in the F train on Monday warranted his death.

“Why is it, in one of the wealthiest places in the history of the world, did Neely lack for a proper place to sleep and adequate mental health care? Why was he thirsty and hungry in a land of unimaginable plenty? Why, in the throes of crisis, was a subway car the only place he had to go?

There should have been something to catch Jordan Neely before he fell this far. Instead, a stranger choked him to death.

We are living through a vicious campaign of demonization and hostility toward the homeless. Networks like Fox News show endless videos of attacks by homeless people that present them as inherently unstable, violent and dangerous. Prominent voices speak of sweeping homeless people from the streets like trash, and cities have tasked the police with using force to solve the problem.”

Watch: Protesters take to New York streets to demand action over Jordan Neely death

Saturday 6 May 2023 21:00 , Bevan Hurley

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets again on Saturday to call for action over the death of Jordan Neely.

The “Justice for Jordan Neely” protesters carried signs saying “white bias is lethal”, “being poor is not a crime”, and “arrest that f*****”.

According to videos posted to Twitter, several protesters were arrested near Union Square after a confrontation with NYPD officers.

It’s not clear what led to the arrests.

Happening now: Police and Jordan Neely protesters clash in New York

Saturday 6 May 2023 20:54 , Bevan Hurley

NYPD officers clashed with protesters during a demonstration over the killing of Jordan Neely in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon.

A group of about 150 protesters were marching on Lafayette St towards Union Square a few minutes ago.

According to Tara Skurtu, police moved in to arrest several protesters and then tackled a man to the ground who went to their aid.

Police then formed a barricade around the protesters, Ms Skurtu said in a Twitter post.

Who was Jordan Neely, the man killed in a NYC subway chokehold?

Saturday 6 May 2023 20:25 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely, 30, died after being held in chokehold by member of the public on a subway train on Monday afternoon, sparking angry protests and outrage.

Joe Sommerlad reports on how, after his mother was murdered, Neely had to testify at her ex-partner’s trial at the age of 18.

After experiencing homelessness, Neely became an expert Michael Jackson impersonator.

Jordan Neely, the man killed in a NYC subway chokehold

New Yorkers protest Jordan Neely’s killing

Saturday 6 May 2023 19:55 , Bevan Hurley

Hundreds of New Yorkers turned out to protest the killing of Jordan Neely on Friday night.

A “Justice for Jordan Neely” rally was held in Washington Square Park, the latest in a series of demonstrations held across the city since Neely’s death on Monday.

Reverend Al Sharpton spoke at a separate rally in Harlem on Saturday morning, where he called on the Manhattan District Attorney to explore criminal charges against a Marine veteran who put Neely in a chokehold.

Neely, a 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator who was experiencing homelessness, died on an F train on a Manhattan subway.

Daniel Penny, 24, has been identified as the man who allegedly choked Neely.

The death has been ruled a homicide. No arrests have been made.

Charges in NYC chokehold death may hinge on 'reasonableness'

Saturday 6 May 2023 19:25 , Bevan Hurley

A former Manhattan assistant district attorney tells the Associated Press that a decision on whether to lay charges over Jordan Neely’s death could hinge on a “tricky” legal requirement that they feared for their own life or someone else’s.

“Suppose the Marine says, ‘I honest to God thought I had no choice but to save someone,’ the question would be whether an objectively reasonable person in his circumstances would have felt the same,” Mark Bederow said.

Charges in NYC chokehold death may hinge on 'reasonableness'

Kayleigh McEnany mocks protesters marching against killing of Jordan Neely

Saturday 6 May 2023 18:55 , Bevan Hurley

Fox News anchor and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appeared to use racist tropes to mock demonstrators who took to the street in New York City in recent days to protest the killing of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man who was choked to death by a white former Marine.

On Friday, after showing a clip of activists chanting, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now” and other slogans to the beat of a drum, Ms McEnany cracked a smile and said, “Well, at least they have rhythm,” eliciting laughs from her cohosts.

The Fox anchor also condemned people who have “already made up their minds” about the killing, in which 24-year-old Daniel J Penny was filmed choking Neely for an estimated 15 minutes.

Kat Abughazaleh, an analyst at watchdog group Media Matters for America, said Ms McEnany’s rhetoric “mocks Black people protesting the killing of Jordan Neely.”

Ms McEnany didn’t know what race the protesters were and didn’t actually see the video being played on air when she made her comment, the anchor said in a statement to The Independent through a network spokesperson.

Josh Marcus has the story.

Kayleigh McEnany mocks Jordan Neely protests on Fox: ‘At least they have rhythm’

AOC and Eric Adams trade insults over Jordan Neely death

Saturday 6 May 2023 18:25 , Bevan Hurley

Two of New York’s most prominent Democrats have engaged in a highly public spat over Jordan Neely’s death.

Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected on a platform of cracking down on crime in New York City, ripped into Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for calling Neely’s death a “murder” in a CNN interview earlier this week.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying Mr Adams’ response felt like a “new low” for his administration.

“Not being able to clearly condemn a public murder because the victim was of a social status some would deem ‘too low’ to care about,” she wrote on Twitter.

Who is Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine filmed choking Jordan Neely?

Saturday 6 May 2023 17:55 , Bevan Hurley

A former US Marine who choked Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway car has been identified as 24-year-old Daniel James Penny.

Neely’s death was ruled by the New York medical examiner’s office as a homicide due to compression against his neck. Video footage and eyewitness accounts show a man believed to be Mr Penny with his arm wrapped around Neely for several minutes until his eyes shut and body goes limp.

New York City Police Department officers attempted CPR upon arrival on the F train at the Broadway-Lafayette platform in Manhattan on 1 May, according to an incident report reviewed by The Independent. Neely was pronounced dead at Lenox Health Greenwich Village hospital.

In a statement shared with The Independent at 7.30pm on 5 May, attorneys for Mr Penny said that when 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,” the statement added.

Alex Woodward has more details.

Everything we know about Daniel Penny, filmed fatally choking Jordan Neely

'He wasn’t out to hurt nobody’

Saturday 6 May 2023 17:25 , Bevan Hurley

Jordan Neely’s father has spoken out about his son’s tragic death on a New York subway train.

Andre Zachery, 59, told the New York Daily News that his son was not violent and did not deserve to be choked to death.

“Obviously he was calling for help…He wasn’t out to hurt nobody,” Mr Zachery said.

“He was a good kid and a good man too. Something has to be done.”

US Marine Daniel Penny has been identified as the person who placed Neely in a chokehold. The death has been ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.

Mr Zachery called on investigators to prosecute Mr Penny.

“That man, he’s still walking around right now. My son didn’t deserve to die because he needed help,” he added added.

New York was not a ‘safe city’ for Jordan Neely

Saturday 6 May 2023 16:55 , Bevan Hurley

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

“On Monday, a Black houseless man with a history of mental illness, Jordan Neely, was shouting at passengers on the New York subway. Witnesses said he did not physically assault or harm anyone. But a so-far unnamed white 24-year-old ex-Marine decided Neely needed to be subdued. He put him in a neckhold and, as bystanders watched, he choked Neely to death.

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely. Democratic State Senator Julia Salazar compared his horrific killing to a lynching – the public extermination of a Black, marginalized person in the name of restoring public order.

Though Neely was not killed by the police, his death painfully shows how mainstream rhetoric of policing, order, and safety all frame marginalized people as innately unsafe. From this viewpoint, “safety” means hiding, quelling, or even outright eliminating certain marginalized populations – Black people, homeless people, mentally ill people, poor people.

Conservatives and centrists often attack progressives for not being sufficiently concerned with public safety. “Defund the police” is caricatured as a reckless abandonment of public order. It’s attacked as an unserious, utopian endeavor by people who don’t care about the safety of (supposedly) normal people.”

New York was not safe for Jordan Neely | Voices

Jordan Neely wanted help. A brutal narrative about homelessness blamed him for his own death

Saturday 6 May 2023 16:25 , Bevan Hurley

On a Monday afternoon F train in Manhattan, a passenger wrestled another man to the ground and wrapped his arm around his neck for several minutes. He died moments later.

Jordan Neely’s death was recorded by another passenger and preserved in a widely shared video. The 24-year-old former US Marine who placed Neely in a chokehold was identified by his attorneys on 5 May as Daniel Penny. He was released from police custody after the incident without any charge.

His cause of death was a homicide. The 30-year-old Black man – known for his precise Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms while experiencing homelessness in New York City – died from the compression against his neck, according to the city’s medical examiner.

New Yorkers are no strangers to unstable or disruptive people who ride the city’s 6,500 subway cars; subway riders typically keep to themselves and ignore them.

But Neely’s death has revived volatile media narratives about New York’s homeless population, spinning an act of vigilantism to blame the person killed by it. The mayor and governor have not explicitly condemned the act of lethal violence, raising questions among New York leaders whether the city considers the life of a homeless Black man less valuable than a white stranger prepared to use deadly force.

Alex Woodward reports on how damaging rhetoric and policy failures have exposed thousands of homeless Americans to vigilante violence.

Jordan Neely’s death underscores a brutal New York narrative

New Yorkers protest Jordan Neely’s killing

Saturday 6 May 2023 15:55 , Bevan Hurley

Hundreds of New Yorkers turned out to protest the killing of Jordan Neely on Friday night.

A “Justice for Jordan Neely” rally was held in Washington Square Park, the latest in a series of demonstrations held across the city since Neely’s death on Monday.

Reverend Al Sharpton spoke at a separate rally in Harlem on Saturday morning, where he called on the Manhattan District Attorney to explore criminal charges against a Marine veteran who put Neely in a chokehold.

Neely, a 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator who was experiencing homelessness, died on an F train on a Manhattan subway.

Daniel Penny, 24, has been identified as the man who allegedly choked Neely.

The death has been ruled a homicide. No arrests have been made.

Fox News anchor blames subway death on George Floyd

Saturday 6 May 2023 15:30 , Bevan Hurley

Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld has blamed the death of Jordan Neely on the murder of George Floyd.

Neely’s death on a New York subway carshocked and horrified scores of Americans who blamed the incident on the dehumanisation of not just Black communities but homeless members of society as well.

The death has also evoked comparisons with the murder of Floyd. Gutfeld, however, had a different take on Neely’s ghastly death.

“If anybody says this is like George Floyd, no, it’s because of George Floyd,” he said on The Five on Thursday.

“Because since George Floyd, we’ve had the resulting chaos, the defunding, the emasculation of the police – egged on by The Squad, by the media, by different media outlets, except CNN. That created the pathway and a void where you saw fewer police.”

Abe Asher has the story.

Fox’s Greg Gutfeld blames Jordan Neely subway chokehold death on George Floyd