According to The New York Times, Jordan Neely got on the northbound F-Train at the 2nd Avenue subway station at around 2 p.m. on May 1, 2023.
Before the F-Train reached the Broadway-Lafayette Street station, Daniel Penny had placed Neely on a submission hold.
Neely would die at the Lennox Hill Hospital before 3 p.m.
At least, that’s what I’ve read. I wasn’t there.
But I have ridden the F-Train. Rode out to Coney Island once way back in 1992.
I don’t remember having any confrontations with mentally ill homeless people. Still, I recall feeling apprehensive while riding the New York subway, especially at night — many strange folks were in those subway cars.
But I once had a bit of a confrontation with a criminal on the MARTA line in Atlanta.
A woman I knew was celebrating a birthday, so we decided to go to a club at Underground Atlanta.
We parked in her car on a side street near the Avondale MARTA station (which was the end of the line back then). We took MARTA to the Five Points station downtown and went to the club.
We listened to a couple of dueling piano players for a few hours and had a few adult beverages.
After midnight, we returned to the MARTA train for our return trip to Avondale.
I attended college in Atlanta, so I knew the eastbound MARTA line well. As we arrived, the conductor announced the stations: “Georgia State, King Memorial, Inman Park, Candler Park, East Lake … Decatur.”
As the doors opened at the Decatur station, a man sitting across from us jumped up, grabbed my date’s purse, and ran off the train.
T. Michael Stone was not about to let such a transgression pass, so I pursued the man.
Instead of climbing up the steps on the eastbound platform, he ran across the tracks and headed up the steps from the westbound platform.
I shouted threats. He shouted threats back. A state of war now existed between us.
“Imma stomps a mudhole in your ___,” I assured him.
“____ you,” he replied. “I’ll kill you.”
Later, I learned that the purse contained $8 and a disposable camera. It was hardly worth a violent confrontation, but a reasonable thought had yet to enter my brain.
This man had to be caught and taught a lesson; I was just the man to teach it to him.
But when I reached the top of the steps, two Decatur police officers had caught and subdued the thief.
I sauntered over to the officers and told them the purse belonged to my girlfriend. He had done this sort of thing before, and the officers had staked out the MARTA station, hoping to catch him in the act.
He obliged. He continued to threaten me, but the police officers were much more significant than both of us, so I adopted the pompous attitude of a man in no danger whatsoever.
“You’re going to jail, fool,” I said.
I wanted to say, " I guess that’ll teach him to mess with people like me,," but I felt the officers might find that a bit over the top.
The officers took him away, but they asked me and my date to attend the bond hearing at the Decatur courthouse the following day.
I don’t remember how much I embellished the story to my girlfriend as I related what happened on the street-level platform. Still, I’m sure I said something like, “He’s dang lucky those police officers came along cuz I was about to open a can of whoop ___ on that man.”
I mean, why not? I had not reasoned since the man snatched her purse and ran off with it. I figured I might as well milk the entire incident for all it was worth.
The following day, we went to the courthouse.
The judge read his prior convictions when they brought the purse snatcher into the courtroom.
“DUI, burglary, aggravated assault … manslaughter.”
Swallow hard and make a gulping sound.
As the rational thoughts finally made their way almost uncontrollably.
A can of whoop ___, indeed. Would I have opened that before or after mewling like a five-year-old and begging for mercy?
But the story has a happy ending.
A few months later, we were asked to attend a probation hearing or something at the Dekalb County Jail on Memorial Drive.
When the man was brought in, he actually thanked me for helping him get off drugs.
“Yea, you just lucky those officers came along, cuz I was about to open a can off whoop ___ on you.”
Selah.