The U.S. Marine veteran accused in the fatal chokehold incident in a New York City subway last month has spoken out about why he reacted the way he did.
Daniel Penny “watched an erratic homeless man allegedly threaten to murder terrified passengers on a New York City subway — including women and children — he said he felt a moral obligation to act,” Fox News reported in an exclusive.
Years before, he had deeply absorbed the message conveyed by the late civil rights activist Eli Wiesel, who addressed his high school class about the Holocaust following their reading of “Night,” Wiesel’s autobiographical narrative of Nazi death camps.
“One of the overall messages that he talked about was that good people did nothing,” Penny told Fox News Digital. “It’s a lesson that I carry with me to this day.”
Penny, 24, took action by placing Jordan Neely, 30, in a chokehold in an effort to control him. Neely had a record of more than 40 arrests along with a history of violence. He wound up dying.
“If [Neely] had carried out his threats, he would have killed somebody,” Penny said, who added that he remains so disturbed by the event he has not traveled by subway since.
Despite the looming possibility of a prison sentence ranging from five to fifteen years, Penny expressed that he does not have any regrets regarding the decision that has completely upended his life, Fox News noted further.
Penny also talked about what drew him to join the military.
“It was a very patriotic time,” he said. “A lot of my friends’ parents were first responders, law enforcement and a lot of them responded to the Twin Towers.”
He said he decided to enlist after seeing an ad on TV. “They were going out and helping the world, and I wanted to be a part of that,” he said.
Fox News added:
As an infantry squad leader and an instructor in water survival, he was deployed twice from 2017 to 2021. He toured Spain, Greece, Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Japan.
“It was an awesome experience seeing parts of the world the majority of people don’t get to see, and it really opens your eyes to new perspectives,” he told the outlet.
At approximately 2:30 p.m., Neely, who had a documented history of violent attacks on subway riders and struggled with mental illness, stormed into the train at the Second Avenue station in Manhattan. Once aboard, Neely began screaming and making threats toward the passengers.
“Between stops, you’re trapped on the train, and there’s nowhere to go. You can try to move away, but you can only do so much on a packed car,” Penny recalled. “I was scared. I looked around, and I saw older women and children, and they were terrified.”
He did not go into detail about what happened next, likely on the advice of his lawyer. But a witness previously described what they saw to Fox News.
“It was self-defense, and I believe in my heart that he saved a lot of people that day,” the witness, a retiree who describes herself as a woman of color, told the network.
She recalled Neely ranting, “I don’t care if I have to kill an F, I will. I’ll go to jail, I’ll take a bullet.”
Neely’s family believes he should be charged with murder. They have filed a wrongful death suit against him.
