Ex-Marine Daniel Penny firmly insisted to The Post Saturday that the chokehold murder of Jordan Neely had absolutely nothing to do with race– as well as whatever to do with a damaged system “that so desperately failed us.”
In his initial public remarks given that the caught-on-video May 1 disaster on an F train, Penny was both soft-spoken as well as patient concerning going to the facility of a political as well as racial firestorm, as he encounters criminal fees that can send him to jail for approximately 15 years.
“This had nothing to do with race,” claimed Penny, 24, resting under a gazebo at Argyle Park in Babylon, not much from the Long Island coastlines where he matured browsing.
Dressed in black pants, a blue zip-up coat as well as run-down Vans tennis shoes, Penny really did not flinch when inquired about Neely, a black, 30-year-old psychologically sick homeless guy.
” I evaluate a individual based upon their personality. I’m not a white supremacist.
“I mean, it’s, it’s a little bit comical. Everybody who’s ever met me can tell you, I love all people, I love all cultures. You can tell by my past and all my travels and adventures around the world. I was actually planning a road trip through Africa before this happened.”
He is not a vigilante, Penny claimed. “I’m a normal guy.”
The battle on the train started after Neely purportedly started chewing out various other straphangers as well as tossing garbage. Penny claimed he can not explain concerning the occasions that after that took place due to his pending situation, yet he showed it had not been such as “anything I’d experienced before.”
“This was different, this time was much different,” Penny claimed.
He stopped briefly as well as reiterated, “This time was very different.”
Penny’s lawyer Thomas Kenniff of the Manhattan law office Raiser & Kenniff claimed that fellow F train travelers will certainly support his customer’s account.
“I can tell you that the threats, the menacing, the terror that Jordan Neely introduced to that train has already been well documented. I don’t think it’s going to even be controverted. There are numerous witnesses from all different walks of life who have absolutely no motive to do anything other than to recount what actually happened. They are uniform in their recollection of events.”
Penny claimed he was returning to Manhattan from institution as well as was en path to his health club on West 23rd Street when the disorderly experience appeared. He did not wish to call the institution where he is examining design. He is currently taking courses from another location.
“I was going to my gym,” Penny claimed. “There’s a pool there. I like to swim. I was living in the East Village. I take the subway multiple times a day. I think the New York transit system is the best in the world and I’ve been all over the world.”
Penny confiscated Neely around the neck as well as went down to the flooring as a 2nd as well as 3rd guy attempted to limit him additionally, according to witnesses as well as video clip of the deadly experience.
The city clinical inspector has ruled Neely’s death a murder, noting he passed away as a result of “compression of neck (chokehold).”

What we understand around NYC subway choking sufferer Jordan Neely
Who was Neely?
Jordan Neely, 30, a homeless guy, was suffocated aboard a northbound F train right before 2:30 p.m. May 1, according to cops.
He apparently began acting unevenly on the train as well as bothering various other travelers prior to being limited as well as eventually choked by a straphanger, determined as Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old previous Marine fromQueens
Penny, that was seen on video clip using the chokehold, was nabbed as well as later on launched. He was at some point charged with second-degree homicide.
Why exists results over Neely’s death?
The city clinical inspector ruled Neely’s death a murder, noting he passed away as a result of “compression of neck (chokehold).”
Neely’s auntie informed The Post that he ended up being a “complete mess” complying with the harsh murder of his mom in 2007. She noted he was schizophrenic as well as dealt with PTSD as well as clinical depression.
“The whole system just failed him. He fell through the cracks of the system,” Carolyn Neely claimed.
Who is Penny?
24-year-old previous Marine Daniel Penny functioned as an infantry team leader as well as a teacher in water survival while in the Marines Corps from 2017 to 2021, according to his on the internet return to. Penny finished from senior high school in West Islip, NY.
He gave up to authorities 11 days after he positioned Neely in a deadly chokehold on an F train.
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Penny was charged with second-degree homicide as well as is totally free on $100,000 bond. It is not clear if authorities will certainly aim to bill the various other 2 males. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has 6 months to safeguard a grand court charge versus Penny, according to Penny’s lawyer, Steven M. Raiser.
Neely’s family members has actually claimed Penny ought to be pursued murder.
But Penny’s lawyers have actually claimed he really did not plan to eliminate Neely when he choked him– he was simply attempting to safeguard himself as well as fellow straphangers from a harmful homeless guy, that had a lengthy background of mental disorder as well as many previous apprehensions.
When asked what he would certainly state to the family members of Jordan Neely, whose funeral service was Friday, Penny looked melancholy, thoroughly selecting his words.
“I’m deeply saddened by the loss of life,” he claimed” It’s awful what occurred to him. Hopefully, we can alter the system that’s so seriously failed us.”
But when asked if he would certainly do something about it once again if he were in a comparable scenario, Penny responded.
“You know, I live an authentic and genuine life,” Penny claimed. “And I would — if there was a threat and danger in the present …”
Does he feel he did anything to be embarrassed of?
“I don’t, I mean, I always do what I think is right.”
The Post read Penny the declaration made by theRev Al Sharpton at Neely’s funeral service in Harlem Friday: “We can’t live in a city where you can choke me to death with no provocation, no weapon, no threat and you go home and sleep in your bed while my family has to put me into a cemetery.”
Penny responded yet claimed he was “not sure” that Sharpton is. “I don’t really know celebrities that well.”
He included that he does not enjoy the information. While he understands several of the negativeness towards him– as well as claimed he was rather amazed by the media assault– he stayed thoughtful.
“If you’re faced with all these challenges, you have to remain calm. What’s the point of worrying about something, worrying is not going to make your problems disappear. I attribute this to my father and grandfather. They are very very stoic.”
“If you’re faced with all these challenges, you have to remain calm. What’s the point of worrying about something, worrying is not going to make your problems disappear. I attribute this to my father and grandfather. They are very very stoic.”
Penny claimed he surrendered social media sites years back.
“I don’t follow anyone, and I don’t have social media because I really don’t like the attention and I just think there are better ways to spend your time. I don’t like the limelight.”
Penny, that has 3 sis, claimed he has actually been bordered by friends and family given that the case– as well as states his family members is “hanging in there.”
“My mom is OK,” he claimed. “My sisters understand. They all support me.”
Penny defined a reasonably satisfied childhood years maturing in the West Islip location. He was among 4 youngsters. His moms and dads broke up when he was young.
He claimed his 2 good example are his grandpas, among whom arrived fromItaly The various other grandpa is a first-generation American whose moms and dads arrived fromItaly He claimed he moved a whole lot in the West Islip location due to his moms and dads’ split yet invested a lot of his developmental years in a residence right near the sea that his great-grandfather purchased in the 1960s.
“My grandmother was raised there,” Penny claimed. “And then my father and his brothers were raised there. And then me and my sisters were able to grow up there. I’m very thankful. It is a beautiful house right [near] the water. We wouldn’t have been able to live that lifestyle on the water if it wasn’t for my family.”
Penny claimed his moms and dads’ separation was hard yet it had an advantage.
“It brought me and my sisters closer. You know, we’re really close. I love my sisters. I have three of them. I’d do anything for them.”
Penny participated in Suffolk Community College after finishing from West Islip High School where he was a lacrosse celebrity– prior to employing in the Marines.
“Growing up in the wake of 9/11 and the terrorist attacks in a community full of firemen, first responders, police officers, it was like, I needed to serve my community in some way.”
Penny was released two times with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
“We went to Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Greece and Spain,” he claimed. “We stayed off the coast of Iran for a bit. It was during that whole drone thing when they were shooting stuff down and stuff.”
Penny additionally mosted likely to Okinawa, Japan.
“I love to travel,” he claimed. “It really changed my perspective of the world for sure. I’m very thankful for being able to travel so much. Just the friendliness and welcoming of everyone and everywhere that I went to. And even before I deployed, you know, a lot of my friends I served with in my platoon came from all over a lot from Central America and Mexico, that, you know, I’ve opened up my, my eyes to their cultures and their perspectives.”
“I loved leading Marines and I love being around Marines,” he claimed of his solution, where he at some point accomplished the ranking of sergeant. “I love helping people.”
Penny claimed he “didn’t try to become a leader” in the Marine Corps.
Penny claimed he really did not “try to become a leader” in theMarines “I just did what I had to do. And I think growing up in a majority female household, you learn to lead in different ways from an early age. You learn to have compassion and humility — and disregard your perspective and show compassion to other people’s perspectives as well.”
Leaving the Marines was a “tough transition.”
“I really missed the interaction,” he claimed. “I missed the adventure, you know. So last summer, I decided to drive from New York and do a road trip through Mexico and Central America all the way to Nicaragua.”
Penny claimed he drove cross nation and afterwards to Mexico, mainly by himself yet with a close friend component of the moment. He obtained captured in a negative cyclone in a captivated woodland in Oaxaca, he claimed, as well as was entraped on a hill for 2 days.
“My car got stuck in a landslide,” Penny claimed. “We had to trek as well as discover a regional town to find aid dig us out. They were so pleasant as well as kind. They truly treated me like family members.
“You hear so many bad things about these places,” Penny claimed. “I just wanted to see for myself, and thankfully I was proven right that these people were always welcoming and friendly and treated me like family everywhere.”
Penny claimed he was resting in a coffeehouse in Guatemala in 2015 when he claimed he “suddenly felt overwhelmingly at home.”
“I was in Antigua, Guatemala, in a coffee shop. And I was just kind of overwhelmed by a sense of home even though I couldn’t be further from home, you know. So I just I attribute that that obviously, the locals there. They were very welcome — and also the structure I was sitting in. It was there I decided I wanted to study architecture and maybe help inspire other feelings of home for other people.”
Penny claimed he owes his tranquil disposition to his numerous days on the water– as well as claimed he intended to browse Saturday mid-day after the meeting to blow off vapor.
“I’ve been surfing my entire life,” he claimed. “Growing up on the water, growing up at the beach, it’s what my father and grandfather did, too.”

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