Andre Zachary condemned the justice system after the man who killed his son was acquitted and was dramatically escorted from the courtroom. His lawyer, Dante Mills, vowed to keep fighting while activists expressed outrage.
While Daniel Penny celebrated his freedom after a NYC jury acquitted him in the subway choking death of Jordan Neely, Neely’s father, Andre Zachary, expressed heartbreak.
“My son didn’t have to go through this. I didn’t have to go through this either … It hurts. It really, really hurts,” Zachary said in the aftermath of the verdict.
According to the New York Post, Zachary had an outburst in the courtroom when he learned his son’s killer would not be going to jail, and people clapped in celebration. He was dramatically kicked out of the courtroom after yelling at a person who applauded Penny getting off.
“What are we gonna do, people? What’s gonna happen to us now? I had enough of this … The system is rigged. C’mon, people. Let’s do something about this,” Zachary said during the press conference afterward.
“How dare you laugh and cheer when someone gets away with murdering us,” said Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York. “Racists: burn in hell.”
Perhaps foreshadowing the outcome, last week, the jury was deadlocked over whether Penny, a former Marine, should be found guilty of manslaughter.
Jordan Neely, 30, was known as a subway performer who also had previous mental health challenges. During the conflict that led to his death, Neely had been yelling that he wasn’t concerned about whether he lived and that he was hungry and thirsty.
“The district attorney did a good job, but the jury in this case let us down,” said Dante Mills, the attorney for Jordan Neely’s family. Mills vowed to keep pressing forward with a civil suit against Daniel Penny that seeks damages for Neely’s death, citing negligence, assault, and battery.
In what feels like a reflection of collective exhaustion over the unarmed deaths of Black people, supporters of Jordan Neely took to social media to express outrage over no one being held criminally responsible for his death. Neely’s killing raises concerns about vigilantism in an era of increasingly political and social violence.
“He deserved compassion, dignity, and protection — not the brutality that led to his death. His killing underscores the urgent and overdue need for a complete overhaul in how we address mental health crises and homelessness,” tweeted New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five.
“Jordan Neely was unarmed. He needed support and care,” tweeted Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. “Instead, he received a death sentence. His family grieves while the man who took his life walks free.”
She added, “This is more than a miscarriage of justice — it is a green light for more violence against unarmed Black Americans.”
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