Michael Jackson impersonator dies after being placed in chokehold on NYC subway
05/04/2023 12:33 pm PDT
NEW YORK (TCD) -- The Chief Medical Examiner ruled a 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator's death a homicide after the man was placed in a chokehold on a Manhattan subway earlier this week.
According to WPIX-TV, on Monday, May 1, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Jordan Neely got on a Manhattan-bound F train at Broadway-Lafayette Street and allegedly started making concerning statements about being "fed up" and "ready to die."
NBC New York reports Neely told subway riders he wanted food and would hurt anyone who wouldn't give him any. He reportedly had a history of mental illness.
Juan Alberto Vasquez, a journalist who videotaped the entire incident, told NBC New York Neely "got on the subway car and began to say a somewhat aggressive speech, saying he was hungry, he was thirsty, that he didn't care about anything, he didn't care about going to jail, he didn't care that he gets a big life sentence."
Vasquez said subway riders began to feel scared, and at one point, a 24-year-old man walked up behind Neely and put him in a chokehold. The man reportedly kept Neely in the hold for several minutes until NYPD officers arrived at a nearby subway stop.
WPIX reports the man who placed Neely in the fatal chokehold is a Marine. Medics transported Neely to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The 24-year-old reportedly went in for questioning and was released without charge.
According to The New York Times, the medical examiner determined Neely died from neck compression due to the chokehold.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office told The New York Times their office was conducting a "rigorous ongoing investigation" into Neely's death.
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