NEW YORK — The 24-year-old former Marine seen on video clutching the neck of Jordan Neely, who died from a choke hold on the floor of an F train in Manhattan this month, is expected to be charged and turned in as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter tell News 4 New York.
NBC 4 New York is told this decision to indict Daniel Penny was made by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and it will happen without him appearing before a grand jury at this time. The prosecutor’s office told News 4 that Penny will be arraigned Friday for second-degree manslaughter.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney and a New York City Police spokesperson have not returned requests about which charge or charges could be filed Friday. Penny’s attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
Penny’s lawyers have previously said there was no way he “could have foreseen” that his attempt to control an alleged perceived threat would turn deadly.
Neely’s family says that amounts to a confession.
The potential charges would come days after Neely’s death, and amid mounting public pressure for accountability following the medical examiner’s determination that the case was a homicide. It was unclear if Bragg’s office intended to press charges against two other people seen holding Neely in that video or if those people had already been identified.
Witnesses reported that Neely, a homeless man with a long record, was aggressive toward other passengers on a train at the Broadway-Lafayette station on May 1. They also reported that Neely had not physically attacked anyone before Penny moved to subdue him. Penny was questioned by the New York City Police that day and released. Then came the autopsy findings.
Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams, who had been accused by some of not speaking out sufficiently, formally addressed Neely’s death in a public address Wednesday.
The Democrat forcefully declared that Neely “should not have died,” while carefully drawing the line between acknowledging the loss and the ensuing tensions, and appearing to attribute some sort of responsibility.
“One of our own is dead,” Adams said, empathizing with the emotional intensity that swept through the city over the case. “An African-American man, African-American like me, a man named Jordan, the name I gave my son, a New Yorker who battled tragedy, trauma and mental illness, a man whose last words were to ask for help, a man named Jordan Neley.”
Neely had a long history of arrests for crimes including assault and disorderly conduct, among others. Adams said his death is another indication that the mental health system needs an overhaul to better protect those who, like Neely says, forget about it and “disappear into the shadows.”
2023-05-11 21:13:30
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