The father of a homeless man who died on a New York City subway train on Wednesday after a wannabe vigilante allegedly put him in a chokehold for 15 minutes has described his grief over his son’s death.
“Jordan was a good man,” Andre Zachery told The Daily News. “He was a good person. He grew up good. He always had a (temper), but he never used to hurt anyone ... He wasn’t bad. He was beautiful.”
According to a witness, Juan Alberto Vasquez, and disturbing videos published by the New York Post, the victim, later identified as 30-year-old Black man Jordan Neely, was asking for food and started “screaming in an aggressive manner.”
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Neely, who was also a Michael Jackson impersonator, said he didn’t care if he went to jail and threw his jacket on the ground at one point, Vasquez said.
A white passenger then came up behind Neely and took him to the ground, holding him in a chokehold for so long that Neely passed out. When EMS workers arrived, they couldn’t revive Neely. Vasquez claimed no one thought Neely “was in danger of dying” but he also said it was apparent that Neely had “passed out or ran out of air.”
He added that he had mixed feelings about the incident because Neely had not posed a physical threat to anyone.
The alleged perpetrator, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, was taken into police custody but released without charges.
Zachery told the Daily News that his son, who he claimed was autistic, disappeared from his life four years ago following a downward spiral—spurred by the 2007 murder of his mother.
“He didn’t care anymore after that,” he said. “Once his mother died ... They were very close. He loved her so much that he just lost it. After we buried her, he just wasn’t the same anymore.”
He was a known Michael Jackson impersonator and performed his favorite song, “Billie Jean,”on the subway often. Crowds of people gathered at Broadway-Lafayette station on Wednesday in protest of his death.
Neely had a “documented mental health history with police,” according to the Daily News.
The medical examiner’s office confirmed the 30-year-old died from “compression of neck (chokehold)” on Wednesday and ruled it a homicide. The Manhattan district attorney is investigating.
Read it at New York Post
