Early in the afternoon of May 1st of 2023, several passengers on board a New York City subway car thought their lives were about to end. A 30-year-old career criminal named Jordan Neely — who had been arrested more than 40 times, including for punching a 67-year-old woman on the subway and breaking her nose — had just boarded the train. And as soon as the doors closed, he began threatening the passengers. Multiple eyewitnesses said that Neely threw his jacket across the train, adopted a fighting stance, and yelled, “Someone is going to die today.” Neely added that he would happily “kill anyone” and “take a bullet,” saying he was “ready to go to Rikers” and “ready to do life” because he wanted to “hurt people.”
One passenger on the train later told a New York grand jury that Neely’s behavior was “sickening” and “satanic.” Another passenger testified that what he experienced was “absolutely traumatizing,” above and beyond anything he had previously experienced in more than six years riding the subway. He recounted the moment when Neely approached him, saying he thought he was, “going to die.” A mother and her son hid behind a stroller as Neely began lunging towards them, coming within a half a foot of some passengers. A student commuting to high school said she prayed that the doors would open so that she could escape. One retiree who rode the subway every day for more than 30 years told the Grand Jury: “I have been riding the subway for many years. I have encountered many things, but nothing that put fear into me like that.”
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