O’Keefe was handcuffed on-board the train at the Fordham Metro-North station and removed around 10:45 a.m. but not arrested, according to a statement from MTA police. He said on social media he was able to board the next train.
O’Keefe, 31, who says he began working with Warren a decade ago, said on his Instagram that after the passenger complained, the conductor stopped the train and police forced him to get off.
“I was arrested on the MTA train to Connecticut today, pulled off, handcuffed and detained. An old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting. I refused so she went to the conductor and complained,” O’Keefe said.
The post has been shared about 500 times, and more than 900 users have commented.
Officers responded to a report of a “disorderly passenger” when ”a conductor reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats,” the MTA police statement said.
“Investigation, enhanced by body-worn cameras and on-board security camera video, revealed that a 31-year-old male was observed with both legs stretched across an adjacent seat,” the statement said.
A video posted to O’Keefe’s Instagram begins as police prepare to handcuff him and take him off the train.
“This white woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting on the train, so you called the police to arrest the one Black dude on the train,” O’Keefe says in the video.
“Let’s go,” an officer says, appearing to pull O’Keefe by the wrist.
O’Keefe asks what he was being arrested for, to which an officer responds, “resisting.”
As officers handcuff O’Keefe, he asks, “What are you trying to arrest me for? I was sitting on the train, and you’re trying to arrest me. For what?”
“I haven’t done anything illegal,” O’Keefe says several times during the video.
In response to a reporter’s question at a press conference Monday, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said the incident could have been avoided if O’Keefe had followed rules prohibiting passengers from sitting with their legs up.
“If you’re putting your feet on the seats you’re breaking the rules of our commuter railroad… He shouldn’t do that, that’s the bottom line,” Lieber said.
MTA spokesperson Dave Steckel said that by refusing to get off the train immediately, O’Keefe held up the next train by several minutes.
“When he continued to refuse to exit, delaying service for several hundred other riders for six minutes, the passenger involved was handcuffed and removed from the train,” the MTA police statement said.
In his Instagram post, O’Keefe, who lives in Brooklyn, said he felt as if he had been targeted because of his race.
“They pulled me off the train and arrested me without even talking to the Karen who reported the one black person on the train. On the platform, the police detained me and interrogated me. Only black folks stayed nearby and recorded the arrest,” he said.
O’Keefe also said police failed to take a statement from the woman who reported him to the conductor. Once off the train, O’Keefe was held on the platform and questioned by four officers, according to a separate video on his Instagram.
Police released O’Keefe, who said in his Instagram that he demanded the presence of a lawyer, and he was allowed to board the next train.
“This country is growing more psycho by the day. What will you do about it?,” he wrote in his post.
In response to a request for comment, O’Keefe said he was unavailable to speak on Monday.
After growing up in Florida, O’Keefe worked as an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, advocating for the Green New Deal, according to his website. His work in politics involved writing speeches and producing campaign videos, his website says.
He later became a staff writer for the first season of “The Bear,” which came out in 2022.
In response to a request for comment, O’Keefe said he was unavailable to speak on Monday.