It is a death that has revealed deep divides in the US, and exposed a crisis in mental health and homeless care. On 1 May, a mentally ill homeless man named Jordan Neely began shouting on the New York subway. Fellow passenger Daniel Penny got him in a chokehold and, in front of other travellers, Neely was killed.
After the death of Neely, a popular Michael Jackson impersonator, protesters took to the subway and the streets and a crowdfunder was set up to pay for his funeral. Other Americans hailed Penny as a hero and donated more than $2.7m to his defence fund.
Wilfred Chan speaks to Nosheen Iqbal about Neely’s life, childhood, friends and organisations to explain how he ended up homeless and in such mental distress on the city’s transport system. Anthony Almojera, a paramedic, explains what it is like to be at the sharp end of caring for those in mental distress, and how the system is buckling. While Gloria Oladipo looks at the reaction to Penny’s actions and what it says about the US.
Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA
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