Daniel Penny spoke out publicly on Sunday evening for the first time since being charged with manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely.
Penny’s charges stem from a decision to confront Neely on a New York subway, eventually leading to a physical altercation in which Penny put Neely into a chokehold to restrain him. According to multiple passengers on the train, Neely was threatening passengers and represented a clear threat. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decided to bring charges anyway.
Now, Penny is giving his side of the story in stunning detail.
Penny begins by talking about why he was on the subway in the first place (he was coming from school). That’s likely in response to baseless accusations that he was a “white supremacist” simply looking to hunt down a black man. Penny then goes on to describe his first encounter with Neely.
A man came on, stumbled on, he appeared to be on drugs. The doors closed and he ripped his jacket off and threw it at the people sitting down to my left. I was listening to music at the time, and he was yelling so I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling, and the three main threats that he repeated over and over was “I’m gonna kill you, I’m prepared to go to jail for life, and I’m willing to die.”
You know, this was a scary situation, and, Mr. Neely came on, I’m 6’2?, and he was taller than me.
(…)
I was scared for myself, but I looked around, I saw women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I couldn’t just sit still.
Next, Penny discussed the length of the incident and some of the narratives surrounding what he was trying to do. Namely, as RedState reported previously based on video evidence, Penny says his entire interaction (not just the chokehold) with Neely was less than five minutes.
Initially, mainstream press outlets reported that Neely was held in a chokehold for “15 minutes.”
Some people say that I was holding onto Mr. Neely for 15 minutes. This is not true. I mean, between stops is only a couple of minutes so the whole interaction was less than five minutes. Some people say I was trying to choke him to death, which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him. You can see in the video there’s a clear rise and fall of his chest, indicating that he’s breathing. I’m trying to restrain him from him being able to carry out the threats.
Penny then moved on to counter the idea that he’s a racist who just wanted to kill a black man.
And then some people say this is about race, which is absolutely ridiculous. I didn’t see a black man threatening passengers, I saw a man threatening passengers, a lot of whom were people of color. A man who helped restrain Neely was a person of color. And then a few days after the incident, I read in the papers that a woman of color came out and called me a hero. I don’t believe I’m a hero, but she was one of those people I was trying to protect.
At the end of the video, Penny reiterates that he was not meaning to harm Neely but was simply trying to keep him under control until the police arrived. He ends with this statement.
I was praying that the police would come and take this situation over. I didn’t want to be put in that situation, but I couldn’t just sit still and let him carry out these threats.
Penny is likely to have lots of support from those who were on the subway, further complicating the decision to charge him in the first place. Still, because of the jurisdiction, even a weak case can lead to a conviction. It seems clear to many that Penny did not mean to harm anyone but was acting in a reasonable fashion to confront someone who represented a clear and present threat.
The right to self-defense is imperative. Penny being convicted in the death of Neely would essentially nullify that right. If you can’t restrain a man who is yelling in peoples’ faces that he’s about to kill them and is willing to die, then that essentially says that you must let a threat harm someone before taking action. That can’t be allowed to be the new standard.