Hundreds of people demonstrated in New York on Friday demanding the prosecution of the ex-Marine who strangled a fellow passenger in a subway train with a headlock.

Protesters gathered in Washington Square Park on Friday night, holding placards that read “Justice for Jordan Neely” and “Being poor is not a crime.”

Earlier, members of the Communist Youth of New York protested near the Manhattan district attorney’s office, demanding that the 24-year-old ex-Marine be prosecuted, but also that the officers who questioned him and then released him be investigated. The details of the 24-year-old have not been released.

The fatal headlock incident was filmed on a mobile phone. The document shows the moment when the 24-year-old immobilizes the unfortunate African-American in the subway train. An eyewitness told AFP that Neely got into the carriage and started shouting at passengers that he had nothing to eat and would starve to death. An argument ended in tragedy after the 24-year-old headlocked him until he lost consciousness. He was taken to a hospital, where he breathed his last. The medical examiner’s report speaks of homicide by strangulation.

30-year-old Jordan Neely was a well-known figure in New York: a homeless African-American who used to imitate Michael Jackson’s dance moves inside train stations and subway tracks.

Many of the protesters attribute racial motivation to the 24-year-old ex-Marine, calling the fatal grip a “lynching”.

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – who represents in the House of Representatives areas of New York where many African-Americans live, such as the Bronx and Queens – emphasized that Neely was murdered and called for the identification and arrest of the killer.