The Big Apple straphanger charged with stabbing a rowdy ex-con to death on a Brooklyn J train was found to have acted in self-defense — leading to his manslaughter case being dismissed Wednesday, The Post has learned.
A grand jury declined to indict 20-year-old Jordan Williams, who had been charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the June 13 melee that left Devictor Ouedraogo dead.
His self-defense claim was bolstered by video footage presented to the grand jury, which allegedly showed Ouedraogo choking Williams and slugging him and his girlfriend before Williams stabbed him, according to law enforcement sources.
In addition to the unreleased video of the incident, the sources said witnesses on the train also supported Williams’ claim that he acted in self-defense after he was attacked by Ouedraogo.
“Our office conducted an impartial and thorough investigation of this tragic case, which included review of multiple videos and interviews with all available witnesses, and that evidence was fairly presented to a grand jury. Today, the charges against Jordan Williams have been dismissed,” a spokesman for District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement
“Under New York law, a person is justified in using deadly physical force when they reasonably believe it is necessary to use such force to defend themselves or others from imminent use of deadly or unlawful physical force.”
The news comes on the same day that Marine veteran Daniel Penny was arraigned on a manslaughter indictment in the Manhattan subway choking death of vagrant Jordan Neely — a case that bears striking similarities to Williams’.
Williams, of Queens, was riding the train with his girlfriend around 8 p.m. when Ouedraogo, 36, allegedly began harassing straphangers aboard the train car, and yelled that he was going to “erase someone.”
Ouedraogo – who served time in state prison in 2009 for an attempted robbery in Queens — allegedly approached Williams’ girlfriend and snapped at her, “Want to f–k?”
Williams allegedly shoved Ouedraogo when he refused to back off, and the ex-con attacked the pair, getting into a scuffle that ended when Williams pulled a knife and mortally wounded him.
Williams was arrested and charged shortly after and released without bail.
As he left court last week he called the whole thing “scary.”
“It’s nothing I ever foresaw for myself,” he told The Post. “It’s nothing I ever want to experience again when this is all over.”
Following his arrest, his family started a legal defense fund on the Christian site GiveSendGo, which has so far raised more than $122,000 for Williams.
Oeudraogo’s family has not been available for comment on the case despite numerous attempts.
The case has been compared to the high-profile arrest of the 24-year-old Penny, who pleaded not guilty Wednesday as he was arraigned on manslaughter charges in the caught-on-video May 1 Manhattan subway choking death of troubled vagrant Jordan Neely.
Penny has claimed that he stepped in and grabbed Neely because he felt he posed a danger.
But Williams’ father, James, told The Post in an exclusive interview this month that while there were similarities between the two cases, there are also “intricate differences.”
He said his son, unlike Penny, was physically attacked and had no choice but to defend himself.
“What would you do if someone was beating you in the face?” he said. “You jump into survival mode. That’s what he did. He jumped into survival mode.”