Ex-Marine Daniel Penny is giving his side of what actually happened on the New York City subway with Jordan Neely, claiming he wasn’t “trying to choke him to death” and denied he held him in a chokehold for 15 minutes in what he called a “scary situation.”

(Video Credit: FOX 5 New York)

Neely was reportedly a mentally disturbed homeless man who was allegedly threatening passengers on the subway when Penny jumped in to stop him from hurting someone. Neely lost consciousness and later died after being subdued by Penny in May. The medical examiner’s office determined that Neely died from “compression of the neck.”

Penny, 24, is being charged with manslaughter. The video shows him restraining Neely in a chokehold on an F train.

The ex-Marine’s attorney released a video on Sunday. Penny adamantly denied intending to kill Neely.

“The man stumbled on, he appeared to be on drugs, the doors closed, and he ripped his jacket off and threw it down at the people sitting next to me at my left,” Penny, who lives in the East Village, recalled on the video.

Men, take note.
This is what a man looks like☝️
He is brave. He is strong. He is calm under pressure.
To all his male critics, he is twice the man you are.

— Leah Van Lagen (@leahvanlagen) June 12, 2023

(Video Credit: ABC 7 Chicago)

“I was listening to music at the time, and I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling,” he recounted. “The three main threats that he repeated over and over again were I’m going to kill you, I’m prepared to go to jail for life and I’m willing to die.”

Penny is 6’2″ but Neely was bigger than him. He “couldn’t sit still” as the man yelled in “terrified” passengers’ faces.

“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 stated. “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.”

“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 said, setting the record straight. “Some people say I was trying to choke him to death — which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him.”

This is the man @AOC wants to throw in prison for life. If she was in charge he would never see the light of day again.

— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) June 12, 2023

“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,” he insisted.

Penny claimed that he used a grip on Neely that was “based on the force that he’s exerting.”

He told the New York Post in an interview in May that the altercation had nothing to do with race and said, “I’m not a white supremacist.” He called those accusing him of that and the idea of racism behind it “ridiculous.”

“I didn’t see a black man threatening passengers, I saw a man threatening passengers, a lot of whom were people of color,” Penny noted.

A post on Reddit from nine years ago warns the public about #JordanNeely. The man’s death after being restrained by passengers has ignited BLM rage because one of the passengers involved appears to be white. https://t.co/H2x7htqD8J pic.twitter.com/eHKarkHgj7

— Andy Ngô ️‍ (@MrAndyNgo) May 5, 2023

Two men on the subway helped Penny subdue Neely.

“The man who helped restrain Mr. Neely was a person of color,” Penny 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. I don’t believe that I’m a hero, but she was one of those people I was trying to protect, who were all scared.”

Initially, Penny was taken into custody and then released. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, however, decided to indict him and charge him with second-degree manslaughter in connection with Neely’s death.

He is a hero. Where was the homeless man’s loving, caring devoted family when he was homeless? I pray his defense attorney asks alan bragg why did he charge Mr. Penny only after the braying mob showed up.

— Can We All Engage Our Brain? (@norajones388) June 12, 2023

“I was trying to keep him on the ground until the police came. 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 remarked.

Neely had a very long wrap sheet and was known to be violent. He suffered from mental illness as well. His family is demanding Penny face murder charges.

Penny will reportedly be back in court on July 17, according to the New York Post.

He found a lot of support on Twitter:

Any sane society would’ve gave him a medal and brought gifts to the door of his house. People would shake his hand when they saw him walking down the street and ask to take pictures with him, proud that they have a man of such character in their community.

— MAGA Luke (@LukeThomason) June 12, 2023

He is an absolute hero who embodies everything about our corps. God bless you man.

— Mark (@RealityBlown) June 12, 2023

Men are protectors, we do this so society feels safe and we can all thrive. This is being taken away and a police state is the future. Stand up for men being men.

— Jake G (@Darkfiber_G) June 12, 2023

The end goal here is to deter good Samaritans from intervening in the defense of life.

— Brian Parsons (@_BrianMichaelP) June 12, 2023

Literally, did something when everyone else was too scared to even pull out their phones

— Joe Majors (@beeeeeshop) June 12, 2023

It’s good to know that America still produces men like this despite all efforts by its elites to stop this from happening.

— Very Insignificant Person (@VeryInsig) June 12, 2023

He is a hero and that’s why they are going after him. They hate heroes.

— UltraSaltyDomer1776 (@USD1776) June 12, 2023

People with less courage who have been neutered by our current society will lash out in anger at Penny and call him a murderer, the anger is to hide their shame because they know when the time to act had come they would have turned away in fear and failed the test.

— Lateboomer (@lateboomer1963) June 12, 2023

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