Afroamerikan död efter ingripande av vit civilperson i NYs tunnelbana (2023-05-01)

The city medical examiner has ruled the death of a homeless man strangled by a Marine on the subway earlier this week a homicide — as prosecutors mulled whether to pursue charges.

Jordan Neely’s cause of death was “compression of neck (chokehold)” and the manner of his death constituted a homicide, the medical examiner determined Wednesday afternoon.

The wannabe vigilante, identified as a 24-year-old Marine from Queens, took down Neely from behind and placed him in a chokehold for about 15 minutes, police said. Neely passed out and when EMS arrived, they were unable to revive him.

The New York City straphanger who was caught on video putting a disturbed homeless man in a deadly chokehold this week could be prosecuted — although for what charges would likely depend on how threatened subway riders felt beforehand, legal experts said Wednesday.

But several factors would need to be taken into account before prosecutors can even determine there was criminal liability.

“It really depends, I suppose, on the danger that he posed to the other passengers,” Jeffrey Lichtman, the defense attorney who’s represented Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and John Gotti Jr., said of Neely, 30, who went on a boisterous rant just before he was choked out and killed on an F train.

Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused man who had at one time earned a living in the city as a skilled Michael Jackson impersonator who performed in Times Square, died on Monday afternoon after a confrontation with a fellow passenger.
The confrontation took place as an F train traveling north reached the Broadway-Lafayette station in SoHo.
New York subway rider killed performer via chokehold, authorities say
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According to police officials and video, Neely had been harassing passengers on the subway and making threats when he was placed in a minutes-long headlock by a 24-year-old former US Marine.

Then, according to New York Daily News, Neely “yelled and threw garbage at commuters, prompting an argument with the 24-year-old veteran Marine, cops said. The quarrel turned into a brawl as the train entered the station” at Broadway-Lafayette Street. The unidentified veteran came up behind Neely and took him to the ground, Vazquez said, placing him in a choke hold that he said lasted 15 minutes.

Vazquez’s video lasts nearly four minutes, beginning with Neely already in a choke hold on the train stopped in the station. Two other men surround Neely as he is choked by the veteran, with one of them holding Neely by the wrists as Neely flails his arms and legs. After two minutes, a man enters the train to warn the choke hold could be lethal. “If you suffocate him, that’s it,” says the witnesss. “You don’t want to catch a murder charge.” One of the men responds, “he’s not squeezing no more” and the veteran releases the choke hold. Neely is unconscious and the men roll him onto his side. He was transported to Lenox Hill hospital where he died.