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A shocking new video shows a New York City train passenger strangling a man to death at a Manhattan subway station this week.
The 24-year-old suspect, who has not yet been publicly named, confronted the victim — identified by sources as Jordan Neely — who had started an aggressive rant Monday afternoon while traveling on a northbound F train, according to the New York Post.
Freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez said in Spanish during an interview Tuesday that Neely — described online as a 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator — “started screaming in an aggressive manner.” According to Vazquez, Neely remarked that he “had no food, no drink, was tired and didn’t care if he goes to jail.”
“He starts to make a speech,” Vazquez said. “He started screaming in an aggressive manner,” Vazquez told The Post. “He said he had no food, he had no drink, that he was tired and doesn’t care if he goes to jail. He started screaming all these things, took off his jacket, a black jacket that he had, and threw it on the ground.”
The unnamed straphanger, who sources say is a Marine veteran, then moved behind Neely before wrestling him to the ground in a stranglehold.
Vazquez says the man kept Neely in the choke for upwards of 15 minutes, the Post reports.
Neely, who has a history of mental health issues and was living on the streets at the time of the incident, quickly lost consciousness while in the chokehold.
The hold was so tight that EMS workers were unable to revive him, according to police and law enforcement sources said.
The man who choked Neely was taken into custody before being released later on without any charges, per the New York Post.
Sources told the Post that the investigation remains ongoing, and authorities were waiting on autopsy results before deciding whether to pursue charges against the younger man.
Vasquez, who witnessed the incident, says the straphanger had held down Neely as someone responded, “he’s not squeezing no more.”
“None of us who were there thought he was in danger of dying,” Vasquez said. “We thought he just passed out or ran out of air.”
