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Outrage continues to grow over the killing of an NYC homeless man.
Violence in the subway system has been a hot point of contention in recent years as straphangers fear getting pushed on the tracks or unruly people within the train. But earlier this week, a homeless man named Jordan Neely, 30, was killed by a former U.S. Marine who put him in a chokehold on the floor of a subway car.
Others on the train say that before the altercation, he was acting in a “hostile and erratic manner” while yelling and ranting about being angry because he didn’t have anything to eat and didn’t care if he ended up in prison.
“‘I don’t have food. I don’t have a drink. I am fed up,’” Neely said, according to independent journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez. “‘I don’t care if I go to jail, and if they give me life in prison … I am ready to die.’”
The NYPD says that a 24-year-old Ex-Marine then subdued Neely, and it was caught on camera by Vázquez.
Footage shows Neely being choked while other passengers appear to help hold him down, which lasted around two minutes.
Police report that they received a call around 2:30 pm about a fight on a northbound F train, and when they arrived at the scene, Neely was lying unconscious on the train. He was transported to Manhattan’s Lenox Health Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The man who put Neely in a chokehold was placed in police custody but was released after being questioned, reports the Daily News.
New Yorkers are outraged about the killing, saying that just because he was acting erratically on the train, it was no reason to kill the man and he should have received the mental health care he needed.
“Jordan Neely was murdered. But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting,” tweeted U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
See how Twitter’s reacting to Neely’s death below.
