Man who held Jordan Neely in chokehold defends conduct as Al Sharpton calls for charges
Emily Jacobs
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Rev. Al Sharpton called on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to prosecute those involved in Monday’s chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train, as the primary suspect maintains he acted in self-defense.
Neely, 30, was a street artist known for Michael Jackson impersonations whose mental health and drug abuse struggles led him to bouts of homelessness. A freelance journalist aboard the northbound F train when the tragic incident occurred said that Neely acted erratically as soon as he boarded the car. He shouted that he was hungry, thirsty, and had little to live for and threw trash at other passengers as they became visibly uncomfortable and moved away.
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Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old Marine, then came up from behind and placed Neely in a chokehold as two unidentified males aided in restraining the homeless man. The three continued to restrain Neely for several minutes until his lifeless body stopped fighting back. Penny was initially taken into New York City Police Department custody but was ultimately released as officials investigate the matter. It was reported Friday that Bragg is expected to present a case to a grand jury in the coming days for consideration of possible charges.
The city’s medical examiner said Wednesday it had determined that Neely’s cause of death was homicide by “compression of neck” or a “chokehold.”
The situation has divided New Yorkers, with hundreds protesting in recent days to demand charges against Penny and others.
For his part, Penny’s lawyers said in a statement late Friday that their client was not acting in pursuit of harming Neely, but instead to protect himself and others from an erratic man having a mental health episode.
“When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived,” the statement read. “Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”
That explanation wasn’t sufficient to Sharpton, a civil rights icon, who said at his weekly Saturday rally of the viral footage, “I’m looking at the video. You got one man choking and the other holding him down. They all need to be in front of a grand jury.”
“This man needs to be prosecuted cause what you will do if you do not prosecute him, in my judgment, is you will set a standard of vigilantism that we cannot tolerate,” he continued. “The precedent alone is a threat to all of us. We cannot allow this lawlessness to go unchecked.”
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Sharpton went on to say that while there are many disturbing things that occur on the New York City subway every day, those actions do not merit strangling another individual.
“This man did not have his bio on his back,” he said of Neely’s lengthy rap sheet. “This man had a mental issue and the way you handle that is not to put him in a chokehold and squeeze the life out of him. A mental issue on a train is not to be sentenced with death.”