A person seen on video placing one other man in a lethal chokehold on a New York Metropolis subway practice turned himself in Friday morning to face prison prices, his lawyer mentioned. Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old Marine veteran, is being charged with second diploma manslaughter, the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace mentioned Thursday.
Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old former Michael Jackson impersonator who was homeless, died after being put in a chokehold by Penny earlier this month.
Penny surrendered to New York Metropolis cops shortly after 8 a.m. Friday, in response to his lawyer, Thomas Kenniff. The lawyer anticipated his consumer to be arraigned Friday afternoon.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP through Getty Pictures
Jordan Neely’s reason behind loss of life
A video lasting practically 3 minutes exhibits Penny on the ground of a subway automotive with Neely in a chokehold on Could 1. Penny was initially questioned by police and launched with out being charged. Â
The New York Metropolis medical expert’s workplace decided that Neely died from a chokehold and dominated his loss of life a murder.
Witnesses informed police Neely had been begging for meals and performing erratically on the F-line practice earlier than Penny intervened. In response to witnesses, Neely was screaming about being hungry and drained however did not assault anybody.
Daniel Penny’s attorneys’ assertion
After prices had been introduced Thursday, Penny’s attorneys mentioned he “stepped in to guard himself and his fellow New Yorkers.”
“We’re assured that when all of the information and circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are delivered to bear, Mr. Penny will probably be absolutely absolved of any wrongdoing,” Kenniff and fellow lawyer Steven Raiser mentioned in a press release.
Final week, the attorneys mentioned Neely was “aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and different passengers,” and that Penny and others “acted to guard themselves.”
“Daniel by no means supposed to hurt Mr. Neely and couldn’t have foreseen his premature loss of life,” the attorneys mentioned.
Neely’s household mentioned in response that the assertion by Penny’s lawyer quantities to an “request for forgiveness,” and that “his actions on the practice, and now his phrases, present why he must be in jail.”
Neely’s household lawyer declined to touch upon the fees Thursday, however was anticipated to talk to the media Friday morning, CBS Information New York reported.
The case sparked days of protests by demonstrators calling for justice for Neely.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a metropolis elected official, joined the requires prices towards Penny forward of Thursday’s announcement.
“Jordan Neely was unjustly killed, and prices should be instantly introduced towards the one who killed him,” Williams informed reporters this week. “To say the rest is an equivocation that can solely additional a story that devalues the lifetime of a Black homeless man with psychological well being challenges and encourages an angle of dehumanization of New Yorkers in best want.”
Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander mentioned psychological well being companies should be extra extensively accessible to New Yorkers. “New York Metropolis is just not Gotham,” Lander informed reporters. “We will not be a metropolis the place you possibly can choke somebody to loss of life who’s experiencing a psychological well being disaster.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged that Neely’s loss of life “devastated his household and shocked his fellow New Yorkers.” Adams additionally urged individuals to not rush to judgment.
“One factor we will say for positive: Jordan Neely didn’t need to die,” Adams mentioned Wednesday throughout an handle at Metropolis Corridor, “and all of us should work collectively to do extra for our brothers and sisters fighting critical psychological sickness.”
