Daniel Penny who is charged with killing Jordan Neeley, a Michael Jackson impersonator, on May 1 by putting him in a chokehold on the subway as two other men also held him down, raised $2 million for his defense fund.

Some of the money came from Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who donated $10,000 to the fund. 

New York Congressmen Alexandria Ocasio-Corten immediately called for Penney’s arrest. 

But the news media released his criminal record, which included fare jumping.

Penney is charged with 2nd-degree Manslaughter, but Lennon Edwards, the Neely family attorney, is pushing for second-degree charges.

He argues Penny should have known Neely would die after seeing him struggle during the chokehold. His death had been ruled a homicide by the New City Medical Examiner.

 â€œOne thing we can say for sure: Jordan Neely did not deserve to die,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, nine days after the subway death. “All of us must work together to do more to help our brothers and sisters struggling with serious mental illness.” 

Neely was acting out but he did not threaten any of the other passengers.

But Law students graduating from the City University of New York (CUNY) turned their backs on Adams in protest against him as he gave their commencement address on Friday.

A video posted on social media showed many of the graduates standing silently and facing the back of the room as Adams spoke. 

The mayor also received some boos and shouting. 

Adams has faced some controversy in the past week for his response to the death of Neely, a 30-year-old mentally ill homeless man.