Jordan Neely Michael Jackson Impersonator dies at age 30

'Jordan was screaming for help': Neely mourned at Harlem funeral

Mourners packed a church in Harlem on Friday for the funeral of Jordan Neely, whose family remembered him as an athlete and entertainer with a childhood marked by tragedy.

Relatives, friends and elected officials gathered at Mount Neboh Baptist Church for the service, held weeks after Neely’s death.

The New York City native, who grew up surrounded by family, “shared an unbreakable bond” with his mother as a young boy, his great-aunt Mildred Mahazu recalled as she read his obituary at the pulpit.

But “unspeakable tragedy” struck in Neely’s teenage years, Mahazu said, when his mother was murdered by her boyfriend. After her death, Neely moved in with his father, enrolling at Bayonne High School in New Jersey, where he played basketball and soccer.

“By the time he turned 18, he was on his own, making a living as a Michael Jackson impersonator,” she said. “He was greatly influenced by pop star Michael Jackson, who he started idolizing from the age of 7.”

Dressed as Jackson, Neely "performed in front of thousands of people in the streets of New York City, and on the subways, where he was well known and loved,” Mahazu said.

It was on the subway, on May 1, that Neely was killed, prosecutors say. In the years prior, Neely’s struggles with mental health issues and run-ins with law enforcement reportedly landed him in and out of city hospitals and jails.

Neely was shouting that he had nothing to eat or drink, was willing to go to jail and was “ready to die” before 24-year-old Daniel Penny put him in a fatal chokehold, the witness who filmed his death said.

Penny’s attorneys have said he was acting to protect his fellow subway riders. The former Marine has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in connection with Neely’s death.

Eulogizing Neely on Friday, the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network headquarters sit about 30 blocks from the church, quoted the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats from the Gospel of Matthew.

“‘I was hungry, and you brought me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in,’” Sharpton said. “Why did I select that scripture? Because there has been, since Jordan’s death, a distortion of values.”

“Jordan was not annoying someone on the train. Jordan was screaming for help,” he said. “We keep criminalizing people with mental illness. People keep criminalizing people that need help.”

Neely’s mother’s own funeral was held at Mount Neboh Baptist Church, Sharpton said, pointing to the seat where Neely sat. The 30-year-old had “never been the same” after her death in 2007, he said.

Neely’s funeral, Sharpton said, “was not on the schedule.”

“We’re not here because of natural causes. We’re here because of unnatural policies,” he said. “The sad part about it, the sick part about it, is that he’d been choked much of his life. The agencies that failed to keep him and give him mental health choked Jordan. Those that let him go even though they had his record of needing help, they choked Jordan. He’d been choked most of his adult life.”

Sharpton also made reference to the Parable of the Good Samaritan as he refuted claims that Penny was acting as one when he killed Neely.

“A good Samaritan helped those in trouble. They don’t choke ‘em out,” he said. “What happened to Jordan was a crime, and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves.”

www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2023/05/19/jordan-neely-to-be-mourned-at-manhattan-church