Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old USMC veteran who put Jordan Neely in a chokehold that proved fatal on the New York City subway last week, will face second-degree manslaughter charges, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Thursday.
“We can confirm that Daniel Penny will be arrested on a charge of manslaughter in the second degree,” a spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said. “We cannot provide any additional information until he has been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, which we expect to take place tomorrow.”
Neely, who had a history of mental illness, was throwing garbage on the F train on May 1 and yelling that he wanted to die or go to jail because he was tired of having no food when Penny stepped in to restrain him.
The city medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by “compression of neck (chokehold).” Protesters jumped onto the tracks at one Lenox Hill subway station last weekend, blocking subway service while calling for consequences for Penny, who was initially taken into custody after Neely’s death, but was later released.
Penny released a statement through his attorneys last week saying he “never intended to harm” Neely.
A three-and-a-half minute long video captured by a witness begins with Neely already in a chokehold. Shortly after, a second rider pins down Neely’s arms. Thirty seconds into the video, Neely begins to flail his arms and try to escape Penny’s grasp. Then the third man enters to help pin Neely to the floor.
More than two minutes into the video, Neely begins going limp. Another witness can be heard off camera telling Penny, “You’re going to kill him now, he’s defecated on himself.” One of the men restraining Neely said it was an old stain on his pants and that Neely was not “squeezing.”
“He’s not squeezing? All right. You’ve got to let him go. After he’s defecated himself that’s it,” the off-camera witness said.
The man holding Neely’s arms down then let go and asked Neely if he could hear him. When Neely failed to respond, Penny released him. Seconds later, Penny and the other man moved Neely into a recovery position. After three minutes and 45 seconds of video, Neely’s body contorted and let out a deep breath. The witness who recorded the video later said, “None of us who were there thought he was in danger of dying. We thought he just passed out or ran out of air.”
The Manhattan DA’s announcement came hours after City Council members called for Penny’s arrest.
“We all viewed a lynching for 15 minutes, we understand that was a crime,” council member Kevin Riley said.
“When it happens to us, we don’t get the same justification or the same leeway as our counterparts … I just want the same level of respect that we give other people for Black people,” said Riley, who is co-chair of the council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) previously called Neely’s death a “public murder,” while the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, had called for charges to be filed against Penny “immediately.”
New York governor Kathy Hochul claimed that Neely died just for “being a passenger” on the subway and suggested it was “very clear that he was not going to, you know, cause harm to these other people.”
But Neely struggled with mental-health issues, including schizophrenia, PTSD and depression, according to his aunt. He had been arrested 42 times, including four times for assault. At the time of his death, Neely had an active warrant for allegedly assaulting a 67-year-old woman in 2021.
Neely was arrested in August 2015 for attempted kidnapping “after he was seen dragging a 7-year-old girl down an Inwood street,” the New York Daily News reported. He pled guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to four months in jail. He was later arrested again in June 2019 for punching a 64-year-old man in the face during a fight in a Greenwich Village subway station, the report adds.
Reddit posts unearthed by journalist Andy Ngo show that subway riders had grown to fear Neely even nine years ago because of his erratic behavior. He was also on a NYC Department of Homeless Services list of homeless people who had dire needs, the “Top 50” list, according to the New York Times.