![]() "He was someone who loved and enjoyed people and life," Edwards said. Neely also had a flair for song and dance, which he would pursue into adulthood. His mother was a professional singer and his father performed with a music group. Neely grew up in a family of musicians who want him to be remembered as a "human being," Edwards told USA TODAY. "If we can see him first as a survivor of violence, it gives us a different perspective on what happened in the subway and helps us understand the trajectory his life had taken over the past 16 years." Who was Jordan Neely? "Jordan Neely was a survivor of violence," Jamila Hodge, executive director of the national violence prevention group Equal Justice USA told USA TODAY. Penny has not been charged, and authorities have not released key details about the incident.īut advocates for Neely say a cycle of violence, mental health problems and poverty were what led to the tragedy aboard the subway. ![]() Lawyers for Marine veteran David Penny, 24, said he acted in self-defense when he put Neely in a chokehold on May 1 after the well-known subway performer and Michael Jackson impersonator began acting erratically on the F train. Now, Neely's own death has also been ruled a homicide by a medical examiner. "This is a family that's extremely burdened." "That's the kind of trauma that can cause anyone to unravel," Edwards said. Her murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. When Neely returned home from school that afternoon, he learned his mother's body had been stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in the Bronx. When Neely tried to say goodbye to his mother before leaving for school the day of her murder, he didn't know her fate – he only knew that her boyfriend had told him he couldn't enter the bedroom where his mother's body was, Edwards said. Neely's mother was strangled at age 36 by her boyfriend in the apartment where she and her teen son lived, the family's lawyer Lennon Edwards told USA TODAY. The public should focus on the needs of people experiencing homelessness and mental illness to understand the tragic, sudden and violent death of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway, lawyers and homeless advocates say.Īttorneys for Neely's family said Neely, 30, began experiencing mental health problems at age 14 when his mother was brutally murdered. Watch Video: Sharpton calls for investigation into subway chokehold
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