Eric Adams blasts AOC for saying homeless man Jordan Neely was 'murdered' on New York City subway

On Thursday evening, New York City Mayor Eric Adams called out Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for saying that a homeless man that was aggressively shouting at train passengers was "murdered."

In an interview with CNN, Adams was shown a tweet from AOC that read, "Jordan Neely was murdered."

"But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges," the tweet added. "It’s disgusting."

Responding to her tweet as well as one from Comptroller Brad Lander, Adams said, "Well both the congresswoman and the comptroller — the comptroller is a citywide leader — and I don’t think that’s very responsible at a time where we’re still investigating the situation."

"Let’s let the DA conduct his investigation with the law enforcement officials. To really interfere with that is not the right thing to do, and I’m going to be responsible and allow them to do their job and allow them to determine exactly what happened here," he added.

In a separate statement published on Twitter, Adams said, "Any loss of life is tragic. There’s a lot we don’t know about what happened here, so I’m going to refrain from commenting further."

"However, we do know that there were serious mental health issues at play here, which is why our administration has made record investments in providing care to those who need it and getting people [off] the streets and the subways, and out of dangerous situations. And I need all elected officials and advocacy groups to join us in prioritizing getting people the care they need and not just allowing them to languish," the statement added.

In response to the statement Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, "This honestly feels like a new low: not being able to clearly condemn a public murder because the victim was of a social status some would deem “too low” to care about."

"The last sentence is especially rich from an admin trying to cut the very services that could have helped him." 

Footage from Monday showed Neely being taken to the ground by a Marine veteran who held Neely in a chokehold. Neely died from "compression of neck," the New York medical examiner determined, ruling the death a result of homicide.

Neely was reportedly behaving in a "hostile and erratic" manner and had a warrant out for his arrest on the charge of felony assault. He had been arrested more than 44 times for public lewdness, and assaulting a senior citizen.

Protestors gathered at the MTA stop at Broadway-Lafayette Streets in downtown Manhattan to protest the killing, and shouted Neely’s name on the streets near the subway stop where Neely was pronounced dead.