Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
Daniel Penny, the man who choked and killed Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train has turned himself over to authorities.
Penny, a former Marine, arrived at the Fifth Precinct of the New York Police Department in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan at 8 A.M. on Friday (May 12th). He surrendered alongside his attorneys, Steven Raiser & Thomas Kenniff.
Penny faces a charge of second-degree manslaughter, which was announced by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Thursday.
Raiser and Kenniff said in a statement that they were “confident that once all the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are brought to bear, Mr. Penny will be fully absolved of any wrongdoing.” A second-degree charge of manslaughter in New York is applied when the assailant is accused of recklessly causing the death of another person. If convicted of the charge in a trial, the 24-year-old Penny would face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. The city medical examiner ruled that Neely died due to compression of the neck on May 3rd.
Penny’s surrender comes after days of sustained but rising outrage expressed by community activists and politicians who were shocked at witnessing the video of Penny restraining Neely, a Black man who was homeless, in a chokehold on a northbound F train. A witness on the same train stated that Neely was yelling at others after boarding the train while in the midst of a mental health crisis. Penny would grab Neely and put him in a chokehold as two other men restrained his arms and legs. Police arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette station, and rushed Neely to a nearby hospital where he died.
Mayor Eric Adams had received heavy criticism from Democratic politicians for not taking a stronger stance on the incident, but after the announcement of charges he said: “I have the utmost faith in the judicial process, and now justice can move forward against Daniel Penny.” Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor who was part of the team that brought the case by the D.A.’s office against the Trump Organization, has been tasked to lead the investigation.
The family of Jordan Neely held a press conference afterward, blasting media depictions of Neely as excessively violent. Family attorney Lennon Edwards said of the charge, “We’re closer now to justice than we were a week ago because Daniel Penny has been arrested.” They also blasted Penny’s previous statement, claiming that “he’s getting to rewrite the account of what happened”.
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