Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday on CNN that its up to the police to determine “what happened” to Jordan Neely, the man who died after being put in a chokehold on a subway.
A 24-year-old Marine vet held Neely, an unhinged homeless man, in a chokehold after Neely launched into an aggressive tirade. Witness and freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez said Neely began “screaming in an aggressive manner” at passengers before stripping off his jacket and telling passengers he didn’t care if he went to jail.
That’s when the veteran stepped in and put Neely in a chokehold for roughly 15 minutes. Neely was pronounced dead after officials could not revive him. Neely’s death was ruled a homicide.
Adams was then asked about his thoughts on comments from Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and comptroller Brad Lander, who both criticized the death and labeled the veteran as a “vigilante.” (RELATED: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Claims Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Is Using The Migrants Crisis To ‘Hurt Black-Run Cities’)
“I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time where we’re still investigating the situation,” Adams said in response. “Let’s let the DA conduct his investigation with the law enforcement officials. To really interfere with that is not the right thing to do. And I’m going to be responsible and allow them to do their job and allow them to determine exactly what happened here.”
I asked @NYCMayor Eric Adams to respond to comments from @AOC and @bradlander regarding the death of #JordanNeely on the NYC subway Monday. Here’s what he said:
“I don’t think that’s very responsible at a time when we’re still investigating the situation.”@CNN #CNNPrimetime pic.twitter.com/NNkBjrexef
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 4, 2023
“Can I just ask you though, I mean, on the question of vigilantism, what do passengers do in situations like that?” host Abby Phillip asked. “Is it appropriate to take matters into your own hands?”
“Each situation is different,” Adams said. “And how a passenger – we have so many cases where passengers assist the riders. And we don’t know exactly what happened here until the investigation is thorough. And each situation is different. I was a former transit police officer. And I responded to many jobs where you had a passenger assisted someone. And so, we cannot just blankly say what a passenger should or should not do in a situation like that. We should allow the investigation to take its course.”