Manhattan prosecutors said Thursday that they will bring criminal charges against a man who used a fatal chokehold on an unruly passenger aboard a New York City subway train, a death that stirred outrage and debates about the response to mental illness in the nation’s largest transit system.
Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, will be arrested and face a charge of second degree manslaughter, which could carry a jail term of up to 15 years.
“We cannot provide any additional information until he has been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, which we expect to take place tomorrow,” the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a statement.
The charges come nearly two weeks after Penny pinned fellow subway rider Jordan Neely, 30, to the floor of a subway car and put him in a chokehold that lasted for several minutes.
According to a freelance journalist who witnessed the struggle, Neely, who is Black, had been screaming and begging for money aboard the train prior to the takedown, but had not physically attacked anyone.
Attorneys for Penny, who is white, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They previously said their client, along with two other riders who helped restrain Neely, had acted in self-defense.
“Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death,” they said in a statement.
A former subway performer known for his spot-on Michael Jackson impression, Neely struggled in recent years with homelessness and worsening mental illness, friends said. He had been arrested several times, and had recently pleaded guilty to assaulting a 67-year-old woman in 2021 as she left a subway station. After pleading guilty, he missed a court date, leading to a warrant for his arrest that was still active at the time of his death.
His death has divided some in New York and beyond, triggering intense debates and protests. Left-leaning advocates described the killing as an act of racist vigilantism, invoking comparisons to the infamous subway shooting carried out by Bernhard Goetz against four teenagers in 1984.
Others, including Mayor Eric Adams, have urged caution, calling on New Yorkers to wait for the full facts and investigations. They note that much is still not known about what precipitated the chokehold.
As the investigation has continued, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has faced pressure to make an arrest. Penny was questioned by police in the hours after Neely died, but released without charges.
A second-degree manslaughter charge in New York will require the jury to find that a person has engaged in reckless conduct that creates an unjustifiable risk of death, and then consciously disregards that risk. The law also requires that conduct to be a gross deviation from how a reasonable person would act in a similar situation.
(AP)
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18 Responses
That figures !!! Maybe Bernie Getz should add his 2 cents !!!!
Says it all:
“In August 2015, he was arrested for kidnapping and dragging a 7-year-old girl down the street, and was only sentenced to four months of prison time.”
In what planet do you live that you think its okay to murder a sometimes violent retarded person?
We don’t think it’s ok to ‘murder’ a violent retarded person. There was no gun no knife.we don’t think it’s ok for a 7 yr old to be kidnapped by a sometimes violent person. We don’t think it’s for a 67 yr old to get a random punch in the nose.we don’t think its ok for ppl to get pushed down stairs. YOU DIDNT DO ANYTHING THEN. We do think it’s ok to subdue a violent person.we do think it’s ok for subway riders to get home safely. We do think Penny was a hero for protecting his fellow innocent subway riders from an obviously violent person. His history proves how dangerous he was. The city had chance to do things differently after his prior assaults and arrests. TIME FR PVT CITIZENS TO TAKE CONTROL!
SchnitzelBigot, he didn’t kill him because he is retarded, he subdued him because he was a danger to people. People on that train felt threatened and a proof of it is that 2 other black guys helped him.
Killing a mentally ill person, other than in self-defense, is not justified. If he had killed someone, as the article suggests, he would have been found criminally insane and incarcerated until “cured” (which is a de facto life sentence).
The ex marine did not know his criminal history so it is quite irrelevant. He just killed a wacko with no justification.
It’s not ok to murder him, And he did not intend to murder him.
I’m reminded of the poem First they came for the cops. Then they came for the concerned veteran who tried to protect his fellow passengers. Then they came………..
The wokist liberals yell that we can’t and shouldn’t bring up his criminal record. They say it doesn’t pertain to this case. BUT why are they allowed to make him into a poster boy. I know why because they want to try and sanitize his past.
>>>The ex marine did not know his criminal history so it is quite irrelevant. He just killed a wacko with no justification.
He may not have known Neely’s personal history but anyone who rides the subways know how dangerous people like Neely can be. When Neely’s personal history became known his suspicion was proven correct.
He didn’t kill Neely. He restrained Neely while Neely fought back violently. He later died in the hospital.
If you want blame anyone for Neely’s death blame the liberal prosecutors who “sentenced” him to intensive outpatient treatment instead of jail after his last assault arrest. It goes without saying that he only went to rehab for about two weeks.
The bottom line is, that during the 9 minutes of the choke-hold, this marine had plenty of time {as did Chauvin ימח שמו וזכרונו} to loosen his grip around this person’s neck, and this person would still be alive {as would Floyd} even if a bit bruised.
It’s not like a self defense shooting which is instant death & hence no time to think about it which would be an entirely different saga. It is that this person was no longer a threat when he was on the ground, with help of 2 other people holding him down.
Actually, his criminal record has a lot to do with the case and it was NYC responsobility to get him help and keep him away from society, they failed to protect innocent people and they should be held responsible for this mess.
Welcome to Sedom.
Sorry Americans
You are living in one big messed up country
> 147
You are not talking about the case at hand. The marine DID release the submission hold as soon as Neely stopped struggling (the submission hold is designed to knock the person unconscious, that is how it is designed to work) and Neely was quite alive – and the marine proceeded with recovery actions on Neely. That is in the full video (which the leftists media did not show and we know because the conservative media finally obtained the video showed it).
Neely killed Neely. The fact is that he was the one who started screaming and threatening the passengers and kept on fighting to be released. If he would calm down and become a non-threat Penny would release him. Penny’s intent was not to kill him, his intent was to protect himself and the passengers.
To the non-thinkers claiming that Penny had no right to “kill” him; you people can’t complain when you see people walking by as a crime is being committed and no one steps in! There are plenty of those videos going around where people are not rushing to victims’ defense and they are simply bystanders or ignore the crime scene as it is unfolding! Nobody wants to end up un Daniel Penny’s shoes.
Crime is rampant because innocent people are being prosecuted for helping prevent criminals from committing violent actions!