Vigilante for some, murderer for others: a 24-year-old former Marine who performed a fatal chokehold on a homeless African-American in the New York subway last Monday was heard by the authorities but remained at large on Friday evening. While the mayor of the megalopolis calls for calm, a grand jury could be seized next week by the prosecutors, according to the ABC channel, to decide if there is cause to indict the one whom American media have identified as Daniel Penny.
New York justice is investigating the death of a known homeless man in the city on Thursday, after an altercation on May 1 in the subway with passengers, one of whom allegedly strangled him, a news item filmed and which shocks the New York left. Jordan Neely, 30, who achieved minor fame by impersonating music legend Michael Jackson (1958-2009) on the street, was the victim of a ‘homicide’ by ‘squeezing’ his neck, said New York forensic medicine told AFP.
Fear of passengers
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 video (note, the pictures are shocking) five-minute footage, 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 hobble and hug him the top of the body. Other passengers standing above the two men look taken aback.
A witness told AFP that Jordan Neely, who appears to be mentally ill, burst into the car yelling at passengers and demanding food or drink. Police briefly questioned the chokehold suspect and it is up to the New York State Attorney’s Office for the Borough of Manhattan to decide whether to prosecute.
“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. .
A “murder”, for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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 President 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 what happened remain unknown”.
Dave Giffen, of the Coalition for the Homeless, denounced “the indifference of the municipality for the lives of people who are homeless and have psychiatric disorders”. Rallies are planned in New York on Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday to push Manhattan prosecutors to prosecute the alleged perpetrator.