Hero or killer? Opinions over subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely has divided NYC

NEW YORK -- It was murder. Or a fatal mistake. Or maybe even justified.

For some in a city divided by Jordan Neely’s videotaped death, the verdict was already in: His death in a choke-hold killing, as found by the medical examiner, was a homicide and the former Marine seen with his arm wrapped around the man’s neck aboard a Manhattan F train was responsible.

“I’m broken to see that,” said Andre Witter, 30, of Morningside Heights, who believes race played a role in the Black man’s death at the hands of white straphanger Daniel Penny. “What did he do? What did he do? Nothing would have been enough to kill someone.”

For others, the case was more nuanced than slapping handcuffs on Penny, the 24-year-old man questioned and then released after last Monday’s lethal confrontation with the homeless victim.

“With mental illness, sometimes you see someone deranged and you don’t know what to do because someone could be aggressive,” said Christopher Johnson, 61, of Harlem. “He could have choked the guy, but not intended to kill him.

“I think the Marine meant to put him (unconscious). I don’t think he meant to kill him. I don’t.”

The headline-making death remains under investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the NYPD, with no charges yet brought against Penny or two other men seen restraining Neely in the video. The Rev. Al Sharpton called Saturday for all three to be charged.

Authorities offered no timetable for a decision in the ongoing probe.

The chilling clip showed the 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator struggling with Penny inside the subway car until Neely finally stopped moving. The video soon went viral, available across the internet.

“There were three men holding him down,” said Upper West Side artist Anita Chernewski. “I know he was harassing people on the train, but he didn’t deserve to die. He was mentally ill.”

Rachel Chandler, a planner with The Center for Justice Innovations, was more blunt: “It was definitely unjustified and inhuman.”

Rep. Alexandria Oacasio-Cortez called the death a “public murder,” a remark dismissed by Mayor Adams as “irresponsible.”

The case was in some ways complicated by the pasts of the two men involved. Neely, who moved out of his father’s home four years ago to live on the streets, had a rap sheet of 42 arrests across the last decade. Two years ago, he punched a 67-year-old woman in her face as she exited a subway station

“Jordan was a good man,” his grieving father 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.”

The 2007 murder of his mother in New Jersey sent Jordan into a deep funk, he recounted.

Penny joined the Marine Corps after graduating high school, serving as a squad leader on two deployments. He enrolled in college after finishing his tour, but soon departed to go backpacking through Central America, he wrote in an online profile.

And he mentioned looking forward to meeting with New York’s “eccentric” people, though the feeling for many across the city was not mutual after Penny was thrust into the headlines following the death.

“It was not justified,” said Eli Kapsack while walking on Columbus Ave. in Manhattan. “A Marine should know better.”

An Upper West Sider enjoying the weather with friends noted one thing won’t change regardless of whether charges were brought.

“Justified or not, somebody got killed,” he said. “Public opinion will determine if it was justified or not. The man is dead.”

The death followed a chaotic scene aboard the subway car, with five straphangers calling 911 before and during the fight between Penny and Neely.

“I’m ready to die,” said Neely only moments before the fatal incident.

Jermaine Lee, 47, a homeless Black man like Neely, knows the dangers of life on the street. He was busking for change Saturday at 110th St. and Broadway when shown the video of what happened aboard the train.

“They need to put him in jail,” said Lee. “Put him away forever. What if he does it again? He could do it to somebody else. You should not take someone’s life.”

The video, he said, made him feel angry.

“Why would you do that to somebody?” asked Lee. “What made you do it? That’s what we should be asking. What made you do it, and why did you do it?”

Margaret Welsh, 39, of Astoria, was appalled by the killing but still conflicted over the case.

“It’s so complicated,” she explained. “I’m sort of an abolitionist. I’m not like, ‘Penny needs to go to jail’ ... I feel like the more I think about it, the less clear what I’m saying is.”

But there’s this, too: “I think it’s really horrifying,” she said. “This is like murder essentially committed in front of people. The lack of charges against somebody — you can just kill somebody on the subway. There’s been a lot of responses where this guy was a criminal.

“He had all these arrests. But there’s not a death sentence for disorderly conduct.”

Jessica Hitchen, of Staten Island, was among those New Yorkers wondering if Penny was struggling with issues of his own.

“It could have been a PTSD trigger,” suggested the 55-year-old Hitchen. “And when he snapped out of it, it’s not what he would have had as a reaction if he had been of a clearer mind. Absolutely could be.”

Actor and stuntman Jeff Cox, 39, a Kansas native who moved to the city seven years ago, said he was saddened by what happened but refused to blame either man.

“A lot of times when I hear stories like this, people rush to judgment and you have none of the facts,” he said. “I don’t want to judge either side. I don’t want to assume this guy was on drugs, and I don’t want to assume Penny had ill-intent.”

He was also saddened by the video showing most riders appearing to ignore the escalating incident happening before their eyes.

“Some people keep their head down,” he said. “Some people will just get off the train. And other people will say, ‘OK, I have to do something.’”