New York: According to police officials and video of the incident, a man shouting at people on a New York City subway train died after being tackled by other passengers and put in a chokehold by one of them until his body went limp.
The 30-year-old Jordan Neely's neck was compressed, the city's medical examiner determined on Wednesday.
Some New Yorkers are familiar with Neely because he frequently danced in the Times Square transit hub as a Michael Jackson impersonator. He was restrained by at least three people, including a US Marine veteran who tightened one arm around his neck, on a F train in Manhattan on Monday afternoon, according to witnesses and police. He was yelling and pacing back and forth at the time, they said.
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A freelance journalist posted video of the altercation online, showing the man lying beneath Neely holding him in a headlock while Neely struggled unsuccessfully to free himself for several minutes. While a third person held down Neely's shoulder, a second passenger restrained his arms.
Why the group had moved to restrain him was a mystery. Neely, a Black person, passed out during the struggle. The train halted at a station, and EMTs and police were dispatched. Shortly after, he was declared dead at a hospital in Manhattan.
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The white-looking 24-year-old former Marine was detained and later released without being charged. His identity has not been made widely known.
Neely was killed by a chokehold, according to the medical examiner's office, but it was noted that any determination of criminal responsibility would be left to the legal system.
The district attorney's office in Manhattan declared an investigation. A DA spokesperson said in a statement: "As part of our thorough ongoing investigation, we will review the Medical Examiner's report, evaluate all available video and photo footage, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible, and obtain additional medical records.
Video of the encounter sparked intense reactions from New Yorkers and authorities as word of Neely's death spread online. Others defended the Marine veteran's actions, while others said they were a deadly overreaction to a person who was suffering from mental illness.
Wednesday afternoon, a group of protesters gathered in the station where Neely died to demand an arrest. A 38-year-old resident of Harlem named Kyle Ishmael described watching the incident's video as making him feel "disgusted."
He said, "I couldn't believe this was happening on my subway in my hometown." Neely's passing occurs at a time when public awareness of homelessness and mental illness on New York City's streets and subways is at an all-time high.
Mayor Eric Adams promised to send more police officers and mental health professionals across the entire transit system after a number of high-profile incidents, including a shooting on a subway train that injured 10 people last year.
Juan Alberto Vazquez, the independent journalist who took the video of the incident, claimed to the New York Post that Neely was yelling "aggressively" and complaining of hunger and thirst. According to Vazquez, Neely did not assault anyone physically and instead approached the man after he threw his jacket to the ground.
The man is seen in the beginning of the video holding Neely against the man's head with his other arm while Neely is already lying on the floor of the subway car. The other man pins the other hand to his body while holding Neely's extended arm. Neely is largely motionless, but after 30 seconds she makes an effort to break free of the headlock. He finally becomes limp.
Coalition for the Homeless executive director Dave Giffen criticised city and state officials for their insufficient response to the mental health crisis and questioned why the Marine veteran was not being prosecuted.
It is shocking, he said, that a person who killed a distressed, mentally ill person on the tube could be released with no repercussions. "This is a complete travesty and needs to be looked into right away."
Many Democratic elected officials echoed those calls and referred to the incident as a low point for the city. The mayor stated that there were still far too many unknowns during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday night.
We don't know exactly what happened here, Adams said, adding that "we should let the investigation take its course" and "we cannot just blatantly say what a passenger should or should not do in a situation like that."
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Online memorial videos display a devoted following that enjoyed running into Neely on their daily commutes. According to YouTube comments, when he vanished at the beginning of last year, some people became worried.
Actor Jason Williams remembered meeting Neely when he first arrived in the city in 2007. Williams claimed that Neely, then a teenager, was a skilled Michael Jackson impersonator who solicited donations while moonwalking through the tube and lip-syncing to 'Billie Jean'.
He personified New York's hustle, according to Williams. "He was a great performer, and it's a real tragedy that he was killed so senselessly."
In a statement, the Rev. Al Sharpton demanded that Neely's death be looked into as a possible manslaughter case. Sharpton cited the 1984 Bernhard Goetz case, in which a white shooter who had killed four Black men on a tube train was found guilty of a weapons offence.
"We cannot return to a situation where vigilantism is acceptable. It cannot be acceptable now just as it was not acceptable back then, according to Sharpton.
Neely's father, Andre Zachery, admitted to the New York Daily News that he hadn't seen Neely in four years. According to Zachery, Neely's mother also passed away suddenly and violently. According to news reports from the time, Christie Neely was strangled in New Jersey in 2007. Days later, her body was discovered in a suitcase next to a road. Neely, who was 14 at the time of her passing, gave a witness statement at the murder trial of his mother's boyfriend.