Al Sharpton: Jordan Neely was ‘screaming for help’

Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday that Jordan Neely was “screaming for help” when he was choked to death on a New York subway earlier this month. 

“We keep criminalizing people with mental illness. People keep criminalizing people that need help. They don’t need abuse, they need help,” Sharpton said as he delivered a eulogy at Neely’s funeral in Harlem, N.Y.

Neely, a 30-year-old Black man, was reportedly experiencing a mental health episode when Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old white Marine veteran, placed him in a chokehold for nearly 15 minutes. He later died at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Penny was initially released by police before being charged with second-degree manslaughter in Neely’s death last week.

“A good Samaritan helps those in trouble, they don’t choke them out,” Sharpton said.

“We can’t live in a city where you can choke me to death with no provocation, no weapon, no threat, and you go home and sleep in your bed while my family got to put me in a cemetery,” he later added. “There must be equal justice under the law.”

Sharpton’s remarks come after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is expected to launch his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination next week, voiced support for Penny and called him a “good Samaritan.”