In video clips, Marine veteran Daniel Penny revealed the three threats that pushed him to restrain Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a New York subway on May 1.
Penny also set the record straight regarding why he did it, how long he had Neely in a chokehold, and disregarded accusations of racism.
Neely died. Penny faces second-degree manslaughter charges.
Second-degree manslaughter is a Class C felony in New York. Penny faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.
From CBS News: “The three main threats that he repeated over and over was, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life,’ and ‘I’m willing to die’ … I was scared for myself, but I looked around, I saw women and children. He was yelling in their faces, saying these threats.”
The Marine veteran just “couldn’t sit still” while watching Neely:
Penny, who is 6’2”, noted that he was intimidated by Neely, who was bigger than him, as he yelled in “terrified” passengers’ faces.He said he “couldn’t sit still” and potentially watch Neely carry out his threats.“There’s a common misconception that Marines don’t get scared. We’re actually taught one of our core values is courage, and courage is not the absence of fear but how you handle fear,” he said. “I was scared for myself but I looked around there was women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still.”
Penny said he held Neely for five minutes, not 15:
“Some people say that I was holding on to Mr. Neely for 15 minutes. This is not true — between stops is only a couple of minutes. So the whole interaction lasted less than 5 minutes,” Penny clarified.“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 being able to carry out the threats.”Penny said the grip he used to hold Neely down was “based on the force that he’s exerting.”
Penny already denied he’s a white supremacist. He said in the video:
“I didn’t see a black man threatening passengers, I saw a man threatening passengers, a lot of whom were people of color,” Penny said.At least two straphangers are seen in the video of the incident helping Penny restrain Neely.“The man who helped restrain Mr. Neely was a person of color,” he pointed out. “A few days after the incident I read in the papers that a woman of color came out and called me a hero.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY