New York City Mayor Eric Adams and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bickered over social media over the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man who died earlier this week after an altercation with passengers on New York’s F Train.
On Monday, a yet-unnamed 24-year-old U.S. Marines veteran was confronted by an aggressive and agitated Jordan Neely, known in New York as a Michael Jackson impersonator with a history of legal troubles. Witnesses reported that Neely was behaving erratically, throwing trash at passengers and spewing threats — “I’ll hurt anyone on this train” and “I’m ready to go back to jail among them.
The Marine Corps veteran was then captured on video restraining Neely in a chokehold with assistance from other passengers. Though the subway subduer released his grip when Neely went limp, the latter was pronounced dead at Lennox Hill Hospital shortly thereafter. On Wednesday, the medical examiner’s office determined Neely’s cause of death to be homicide — though, crucially, this medical conclusion is not an inherent indication of legal culpability for murder or manslaughter.
Adams delivered a statement about the incident to journalist Ben Max on Wednesday in which the mayor expressed remorse for Neely’s death. Regardless, Adams was cautious about assigning blame for the death, implying that he would not condemn the unnamed man with incomplete information.
“Any loss of life is tragic. There’s a lot we don’t know about what happened here, so I’m going to refrain from commenting further,” he said. “I need all elected officials and advocacy groups to join us in prioritizing getting people the care they need and not just allowing them to languish.”
This measured response earned the ire of Ocasio-Cortez, who responded on Twitter.
“This honestly feels like a new low: not being able to clearly condemn a public murder because the victim was of a social status some would deem ‘too low’ to care about,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The last sentence is especially rich from an admin trying to cut the very services that could have helped him.”
Adams retorted when asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s response during an appearance on “CNN Primetime” late Wednesday.
“I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time where we are still investigating the situation,” Adams told CNN anchor Abby Phillip. “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.”
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