Daniel Penny, 24, is the man accused of putting Jordan Nealey in a chokehold. His mother was strangled to death when he was 14 and he struggled with mental illness since then. He made a living from what we could tell as a moonwalking Michael Jackson impersonator who danced on the subways and on the subway platforms of New York City until at least 2009. The NYPD has not given any official statement about his criminal history but other outlets have reported on many arrests for low level offenses that nearly hadn't been passed.
A subway rider choked to death Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man known to New Yorkers for his impersonations of Michael Jackson. WNYC reporters Matt Katz and Samantha Max explain the complexity of the incident.
This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Miles Bryan, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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