Global Courant 2023-05-06 08:33:22
The New York City subway driver charged with the death of a homeless man in his stranglehold is a U.S. Navy veteran who acted to protect himself and other passengers and never intended to harm, his lawyers said Friday night.
Daniel J. Penny, 24, has been identified by authorities as the man who allegedly put Jordan Neely in a stranglehold after what police say was an altercation Monday on a northbound F train, according to two law enforcement officers familiar with the research.
“When Mr. Neely Daniel began aggressively threatening Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect himself until help arrived,” Penny’s lawyers said in a statement Friday night. “Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”
Neely, 30, was unconscious when police arrived at the Broadway and East Houston Street subway station and was pronounced dead at a hospital, the New York Police Department said.
He died of “neck compression (chokehold)” and the form was homicide, the city’s medical board said. Penny was taken into custody on Monday, questioned by police and released. No charges have been filed against him.
Lawmakers and others questioned why he was no longer being held by law enforcement.
On Friday, two sources familiar with the case said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to refer the case to a grand jury for consideration of possible charges. It was not clear when the indictment would become reality or when the case would otherwise be closed without prosecution.
Penny’s lawyers said Neely had a documented history of violent and erratic behavior, the clear result of persistent and untreated mental illness.
“For too long people with mental illness have been treated with indifference,” the law firm Raiser and Kenniff said in its statement on behalf of Penny. “We hope that out of this terrible tragedy comes a new commitment from our elected officials to address the mental health crisis on our streets and subways.”
The incident, captured in part on cell phone video, has sparked a national debate, with people denouncing vigilance and some politicians demanding officials do more to tackle homelessness, mental health and violence in subways. Neely, a subway busker who performed dance routines in costume like Michael Jackson, was suffering from mental illness, lawyers for his family said.
Who is Daniel Penny?
Penny graduated from West Islip High School in Long Island, New York, in 2016, a district spokesperson said Friday, without releasing further details.
Daniel J. Penny, 24, has been identified as the man who allegedly held Jordan Neely in a stranglehold on a New York City subway.Juan Alberto Vazquez
According to a spokesman, he served with the Marines in the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines and 2nd Marine Division between June 2017 and June 2021. He rose to the rank of sergeant and his last tour of duty was at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Penny was awarded two Sea Service Deployment Ribbons and five medals, including the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
In a statement, a Marine spokesperson said the service department was aware of what happened on the train and would “coordinate with agencies investigating this incident if requested.”
But he added that the Marines could not confirm that a former military officer was involved in the incident, saying he was “only confirming that a person by the name you presented to us served in the Marine Corps.”
After the military, Penny enrolled in college but dropped out because he felt “completely unfulfilled” and instead moved across Central America, according to his profile on Harri, a recruiting and workforce management platform for the hospitality industry. According to the profile, he was looking for work as a bartender in Manhattan.
More on Jordan Neely’s stranglehold death
Multiple 911 calls
A police spokesman said officers were called to the station after being given an 911 call about a physical fight.
“Further investigation revealed that the 30-year-old was involved in a verbal dispute with the 24-year-old man that escalated into a physical altercation,” the spokesperson said in a telephone conversation earlier this week. “During the physical struggle between the two men, the 30-year-old man lost consciousness.”
Two sources familiar with the case say there were at least five 911 calls about the incident, including the first reports of a homeless man that some found threatening in his mannerisms and volume.
Juan Alberto Vazquez was on the train and captured part of the altercation on his mobile. The video, which was widely viewed, does not show what happened before the chokehold.
He told NBC New York that Neely got on the train and “started giving a somewhat aggressive speech, saying he was hungry, thirsty, he didn’t care, he didn’t care about going to jail, he didn’t care he gets a hefty life sentence.”
Some witnesses said Neely allegedly acted very aggressively towards other riders and threatened to harm them, the news station reported. Vazquez said Neely was held in the chokehold position for about 15 minutes.
A law firm hired by Neely’s family said he suffered from a mental illness “that began at the age of 14 when he witnessed the brutal murder of his mother”.
His mother, Christine Neely, was murdered in 2007, put in a suitcase and left on New York’s Henry Hudson Parkway. That reports NJ.com. Her boyfriend, Shawn Southerland, was convicted at a trial in which Neely, then 18, testified. He told the court that he tried to say goodbye to his mother before school on April 4, 2007, but Southerland refused to let him into the bedroom. . Neely said later that day that Southerland packed up and left, the news outlet said. Southerland was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
