NYC man threatening strangers on Manhattan subway dies after Marine Corps vet puts him chokehold: NYPD
Jordan Neely #JordanNeely
A disturbed man threatening strangers on a Manhattan subway train died after getting into a brawl with the wrong passenger — a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who put him in a chokehold, cops said Tuesday.
Jordan Neely, 30, who used to busk in the subway as a Michael Jackson impersonator, was on an F train heading toward the Broadway-Lafayette station in NoHo when he began acting erratically around 2:30 p.m. Monday, passengers told police.
Neely yelled and threw garbage at commuters, prompting an argument with the 24-year-old veteran Marine, cops said. The quarrel turned into a brawl as the train entered the station.
During the fight, the Marine put the victim in a chokehold and tried to restrain him, police sources said.
Neely fell unconscious on the train and was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he died.
The Marine Corps veteran was taken in for questioning but released without charges as the investigation continues. As he held the victim in the chokehold, he asked witnesses to call 911, police sources said.
When reached by phone, he declined to comment.
“I’m not answering any questions,” he said. “I appreciate it, but I’m not answering any questions.”
A city Medical Examiner autopsy has been slated to determine what killed Neely, whose criminal history included 40 arrests. Cops were also looking for him for an assault he allegedly committed in November 2021.
The victim has a documented mental health history, cops added.
In a shocking echo from the past, Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, 60, said that Neely’s mother also died at the hands of another person.
“His moms died — she got killed too. And now him?! She got killed [by] her boyfriend. And now him? By somebody else?” Zachery said. “I don’t know what to say.”
Christie Neely was 36 when she was discovered dead, stuffed in a suitcase on the side of a highway in the Bronx in 2007.
Jordan Neely, who was 18 at the time, testified at his mother’s murder trial that she and her boyfriend, Shawn Southerland, fought every day in their Bayonne apartment before he killed her.
The boyfriend, who represented himself at trial, was convicted in 2012 of strangling her and sentenced to 30 years in prison, according to news reports.
Zachery said he hadn’t seen his son for four years, but he recalled how well he impersonated the King of Pop.
“He was very good at it. He was great at it,” the distraught dad said. “I sat him in front of the TV and showed him the Jackson 5…. He took on the Michael Jackson thing and he really formed it very well.”
One of Zachery’s neighbors said Neely’s Michael Jackson impression helped him cope with some mental health issues.
“I felt like something was wrong with him. Just his aura, everything. Sometimes he was asleep in the hallway,” she said.
“He wasn’t violent. He was more a don’t-look-at-me-type of person. Anxiety.
“I felt like that’s why he did the Michael Jackson thing — he had better confidence. It just became like that’s all he wanted to do. Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson.”
She said his MJ impression was right on the money.
“Hell, yeah he was good! He used to get sturdy. He had the moves. The moonwalk. He was always happy doing it. When he was getting ready to go to work he would do it. He used to be real good. I think he did it at Times Square,” she said.
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