New York Gov. Hochul calls for ‘justice’ in Jordan Neely subway chokehold death involving Marine veteran

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called for justice in the case of a Marine veteran accused of putting a homeless man in a chokehold on a New York City subway train just before he died. 

Hochul commented on the death of Jordan Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator with a long criminal history, this week, saying his family deserved justice in the subway killing. 

“I do want to acknowledge how horrific it was to view a video of Jordan Neely being killed for being a passenger on our subway trains,” Hochul told reporters Thursday. “I’m really pleased that the district attorney is looking into this matter. As I said, there had to be consequences, and so we’ll see how this unfolds.”

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“But his family deserves justice,” she added. 

The medical examiner has ruled Neely’s death a homicide. The deadly incident unfolded around 2:30 p.m. Monday as Neely began acting erratic on a train. He allegedly threw garbage at a passenger. 

A 24-year-old Marine veteran, who has not been identified, put Neely in a chokehold for about 15 minutes. Two other passengers restrained Neely by holding his arms down and pinning his shoulders on the floor. 

During the chaos, Neely lost consciousness. EMTs arrived to revive him, but he was taken to a hospital and declared dead soon after. Neely reportedly complained about being thirsty and hungry and a passenger told the New York Post that while Neely was screaming aggressively, he did not physically attack anyone.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Marine veteran’s attorney. 

New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former New York transit police officer, was asked if passengers should take matters into their own hands. 

“Each situation is different,” he said during a Wednesday appearance on CNN. “We cannot just blanketly say what a passenger should or should not do in a situation like that.”

Hochul said the incident was a case of “an individual who took the situation into his own hands.”

“Just looking at that video, you know, it’s wrong,” she said of the incident, which was recorded. “No one has the right to take the life of another person. And in this circumstance, I have said all along and have stood firm in our commitment to helping people with mental health challenges, giving them an alternative.”

U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, in addition to other Democrats, criticized Adams’ remarks in a series of tweets. 

“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,” she wrote. “The last sentence is especially rich from an admin trying to cut the very services that could have helped him.”

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander also blasted the Marine veteran’s actions in a tweet.

“NYC is not Gotham. We must not become a city where a mentally ill human being can be choked to death by a vigilante without consequence,” he wrote. 

Adams has called it not “very responsible” for elected officials to denounce Neely’s death as a murder as the investigation continues. 

Fox News’ Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.