Jordan Neely died after a six-minute chokehold, a new book reports

A new book argues that the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway resulted from systemic abandonment rather than just a single moment of violence. Journalist Anand Giridharadas spent more than two years investigating the events surrounding Neely's killing by Daniel Penny.

Neely, an unhoused Black man who performed as a Michael Jackson impersonator, boarded the subway on May 1, 2023. He was in crisis, shouting threats and frightening passengers. Penny, a white former Marine, placed Neely in a chokehold for six minutes. Neely died from the hold. Video of the encounter divided public opinion.

Giridharadas states that the video did not show the long history of Neely's struggles with the city's systems. Neely had a police record spanning more than a decade. Early interactions were minor, involving jumping turnstiles and sleeping rough. Later, he committed violent crimes and was charged with assault. He was sentenced to prison but entered an alternative incarceration program in the Bronx.

Neely walked out of that rehabilitation facility. In April 2023, he acted erratically at a Coney Island subway platform. Outreach workers and police failed to identify him as a man with an active warrant for arrest. He ran off that night. Weeks later, he was dead on the floor of a subway car.

Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in December 2024. The jury hung on a second degree manslaughter charge, and the prosecution dismissed that count. Days after the verdict, Penny attended the Army-Navy game with Vice President-elect JD Vance and President-elect Donald Trump. Shortly after, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz offered him a position.

Giridharadas says both men felt let down by institutions that should have protected them. "I think Jordan Neely had felt abandoned for a very long time, and had reason to feel that way," Giridharadas says. Penny claimed law enforcement was absent and that care systems failed to support Neely properly.

The book suggests that widespread abandonment leads people to act without institutional support. Giridharadas notes that this sentiment appears across the political spectrum. He draws a parallel to the Luigi Mangione case, where similar arguments about stepping into a void emerged. Giridharadas observes that Penny appeared ideologically blank before embracing his new status and the financial opportunities that followed.

Penny was made a partner on the American dynamism team at Andreessen Horowitz. That team invests in startups focused on weapons systems and drones. Giridharadas notes that Penny did not graduate from college. The book frames these events as evidence of a broader cultural shift where individuals feel compelled to create their own solutions.