Marine veteran Daniel Penny described the situation that prosecutors allege resulted in the manslaughter death of erratic homeless New York City subway rider Jordan Neely in a series of news interview clips released by his attorneys.
The videos feature Penny, 24, elaborating on the subway “chokehold” scene that led to Neely’s death. Penny said for the first time that Neely, 30, was threatening to “kill” passengers on the subway before he was restrained by those around him.
“The man stumbled on, he appeared to be on drugs, the doors closed, and he ripped his jacket off and threw it down at the people sitting next to me at my left,” Penny recalled of the incident which occurred in May of this year.
BOMBSHELL: in new video just released, Daniel Penny says the entire altercation lasted less than 5 minutes and he was threatening women and children.
According to Penny before he confronted Jordan Neely, Neely was going up to everyone saying he wanted to die, go to jail, or… pic.twitter.com/qE4YMAjtk3
— 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_in_Flint) June 11, 2023
“I was listening to music at the time, and I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling,” he added. “The three main threats that he repeated over and over again were, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life,’ and, ‘I’m willing to die.’”
Penny explained that even despite Neely standing taller than him, he “couldn’t just sit still” while Neely threatened others in a crazed state.
“There’s a common misconception that Marines don’t get scared,” he said. “We’re actually taught one of our core values is courage, and courage is not the absence of fear but how you handle fear. I was scared for myself but I looked around, I saw women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I couldn’t just sit still.”
Penny insisted that he had no intention of killing anyone that day, stressing that he was merely attempting to restrain the erratic passenger.
Protesters and lawmakers are calling for the arrest of the man who was captured on video holding Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on the New York subway this week after Neely’s death was ruled a homicide by New York’s chief medical examiner.pic.twitter.com/qLohSECZ7a 02
— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) June 6, 2023
“Some people say that I was holding on to Mr. Neely for 15 minutes,” Penny said. “This is not true – between stops is only a couple of minutes. So the whole interaction lasted less than 5 minutes.”
“Some people say I was trying to choke him to death, which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him,” Penny continued. “You can see in the video there’s a clear rise and fall of his chest, indicating that he’s breathing. I’m trying to restrain him from being able to carry out the threats.”
The former marine added that the incident had no racial basis at all, contrary to the opinions of Democrats and BLM advocates who accused him of being racist.
“I didn’t see a black man threatening passengers, I saw a man threatening passengers, a lot of whom were people of color,” Penny said. “The man who helped restrain Mr. Neely was a person of color.”
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