Jordan Neely died after subway rider put him in chokehold

Source: Gary Hershorn / Getty

This is sick, sad, and infuriating.

A Black man was killed aboard a New York City subway train by a white man who thought himself some sort of hero. According to the NewsOne, 30-year-old Jordan Neely was put in a chokehold and strangled to death for 15 minutes by a yet-to-be identified 24-year-old who is described as a “Marine”. Witnesses say that Neely boarded the F train yesterday afternoon and began yelling and talking aggressively

“The man 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,” said Juan Alberto Vazquez, who was in the subway car and recording part of what happened afterward. “That ‘It doesn’t even matter if I died.'”

After a period of time, the unnamed 24-year-old approached Neely from behind and applied the chokehold despite that fact that Neely didn’t attack or make physical contact with anyone during his rant.

Below is a video of the incident taken by Vazquez. It can be very disturbing to see and advise that you take stock of your mental health prior to pressing play.

The NYPD took the vigilante passenger in for questioning but he was released without charges as the investigation allegedly continues.

As for Vazquez, he now says that he has mixed feelings about what he witnessed, via NYTimes:

“I am confused now because I’m not sure how to think about what the young man did,” he said. “He was trying to help.”

Mr. Vazquez said at the time he did not believe the 30-year-old man could die.

“None of us were thinking that,” he said. “He was moving and he was defending himself.”

And that’s the problem right there, heroism. People get on the NYC subway and make a ruckus all the time and we have no doubt that people aboard the train were afraid or uncomfortable, however, you can’t just kill someone because you’re scared. That’s not how self-defense works.