While the current election is justifiably dominating the news, Daniel Penny’s trial for allegedly killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway has begun, and a new revelation has turned the prosecution on its head.
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As RedState reported, Penny initially subdued Neely after the latter began to act erratically, including lunging at and threatening women and children on the train. Neely would go on to perish and Penny was arrested and charged with manslaughter by infamous Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
At the time, the facts of the case were already called into question after a video taken on the scene showed Neely still breathing for a significant period after the altercation. Further, Penny put Neely in the “recovery position,” suggesting he had no intent to cause permanent harm. At the time, I asked whether Neely was still breathing when first responders arrived.
WATCH: Full Video Further Complicates Narrative Around Daniel Penny Case
Secondly, you can see Neely’s chest still moving (and his leg even appearing to move) in the video at multiple points, which again suggests that Penny let him go with the expectation that he was subdued, not mortally wounded. Was Neely still breathing when the paramedics got there?
That question has now been answered thanks to newly released bodycam footage. Not only was Neely breathing when the police arrived, but they refused to give him mouth-to-mouth, instead sticking him with Narcan assuming a drug overdose was involved.
Two police officers confirmed that Neely still had a pulse when they arrived.
‘I got a pulse,’ one said. A second police officer confirmed that he too felt a pulse.
Neely was unconscious, lying on the subway car floor.
When asked how Neely ended up there, Penny replied: ‘I put him out.’
Despite initially detecting a pulse, they issued Narcan – the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses – to Neely – and started CPR at 2.38pm.
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An NYPD police sergeant, who testified on the first day, said that responding officers did not give Neely mouth-to-mouth because “he seemed like a drug user” who might give them “hepatitis.”
Among witnesses on the first day of evidence was an NYPD Sergeant who testified that none of his team performed mouth-to-mouth on Neely because he was a ‘drug user’.
‘He seemed to be a drug user.. he was an apparent drug user. He was very dirty. I didn’t want them to get… hepatitis.
‘If he did wake up he would have been vomiting. I didn’t want my officers to do that.
‘He was filthy. He looked like a homeless individual. You have to protect your officer.
‘I wouldn’t want my officer to get sick if the person throws up,’ he said.
Would Neely be alive today if the police had taken immediate action to save his life? Did the shot of Narcan contribute to his death? Questions like those are going to complicate the prosecution’s attempt to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penny was directly responsible for Neely’s death.