A former US marine was charged Friday by New York criminal justice with “manslaughter” after the death by strangulation of a known homeless man, a news item filmed on May 1 in the subway and which moves the city.
The case is on the front page of the New York press because it echoes the ills of the largest megalopolis in the United States: socio-economic and racial inequalities, feelings of insecurity, mental health of homeless people and acts of ” self-proclaimed vigilantes against delinquency.
Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old athletic blond man in a dark suit over a white shirt, walked out of a police station in Chinatown, lower Manhattan, in handcuffs, before being rushed to a nearby criminal court.
New York prosecutors Alvin Bragg and Joshua Steinglass read him their “manslaughter” indictment.
In case of trial, Daniel Penny, currently retired from the army, faces up to 15 years in prison.
He emerged free from the courthouse with $ 100,000 bail, the obligation to return his passport and request authorization to travel outside of New York State.
His next procedural hearing is scheduled for July 17.
“Integrity and Honor”
According to his lawyer Thomas Kenniff, his client has “the head held high” and assumes “with the integrity and honor that characterizes him”.
His defense assures that he “risked his life” on May 1 in the subway in order to “protect other New Yorkers” and that he will be “completely absolved” for “the unintentional and unpredictable death” of a African-American homeless man, Jordan Neely, died at age 30.
The soldier is accused of having caused death by “compression” at the level of the neck, according to the coroners of the city.
Jordan Neely, who lived on the streets of Manhattan, had been renowned for ten years for his likeness and performances imitating those of music and dance legend Michael Jackson (1958-2009).
It was a video of the drama on May 1, released by the press the same day, that sparked strong emotions in New York.
For five minutes, it shows the victim on the ground in a subway car, Mr. Penny lying behind to shackle him and squeeze his upper body.
Passengers seem disconcerted, others vaguely try to block the arms of Mr. Neely who is struggling.
Before not moving.
A witness told AFP that he burst into the car, shouting at passengers and asking them for something to eat or drink.
But Jordan Neely obviously did not physically attack anyone.
Known in the streets and the subway of Manhattan, the victim had been arrested dozens of times, in particular for disturbances and assaults. He suffered, like many homeless people, from psychiatric disorders, in a city of 8.5 million souls with abysmal social, economic, cultural and racial inequalities.
A murder”
His father and his aunt, with their lawyer Lennon Edwards, denounced Friday in front of journalists a “murder” because “Daniel Penny intentionally chose a technique intended to cut the circulation of the air”.
The accused “cannot rewrite the end of history. He put his arms around Jordan’s neck, suffocating and strangling him to death. He must pay for it”, thundered Mr. Edwards.
While the number of crimes and misdemeanors has started to fall again in the metro, after three years of increase during the Covid, the feeling of insecurity remains palpable there.
In the local right-wing press and social networks, Mr. Penny is congratulated for having set himself up as a “vigilante” having acted in “self-defense”.
But on the left, the influential Democratic parliamentarian for New York in the House of Representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, immediately denounced a “murder” on Twitter and supported angry demonstrations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Prosecutor Bragg, an African-American magistrate, elected Democrat and who indicted former President Donald Trump in early April, said Friday that “Jordan Neely should still be alive”.
More conservative and in the fight against delinquency, the mayor of New York, the former African-American police captain Eric Adams, had recognized on Wednesday the “need to do more for our brothers and sisters who suffer from serious mental disorders “.
cage number/rle
2023-05-13 08:53:00
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