A grand jury has indicted former Marine Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness who he put in a fatal chokehold on a New York City subway last month.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News on Wednesday that the charges against Penny will not be unsealed until he appears in court to face them at a future date. Penny was initially charged with second-degree manslaughter, and the city’s medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide.
The incident received widespread attention after a video of Penny holding Neely in a chokehold went viral online, sparking conversations about race relations and the treatment of mental illness.
Penny is white, while Neely was Black.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment to The Hill.
Attorneys for Penny vowed to “aggressively defend” him following reports of their client being formally indicted.
Steven Raiser said Penny’s team respects the decision of the grand jury but noted that the standard of proof for a grand jury is much lower than that of a trial jury.
“We’re confident that when a trial jury is tasked with weighing the evidence, they will find Daniel Penny’s actions on that train were fully justified,” Raiser said.
Thomas Kenniff said everyone is “saddened” at the loss of life that occurred, but Penny saw a “genuine threat” and acted to protect others’ lives.
The attorneys pointed to an interview Penny recently gave in which he said he did not intend to kill Neely but only to hold him down until police arrived.
Video surfaced soon after the incident in which Penny, 24, pinned Neely, 30, to the ground and placed him in a chokehold. Witnesses have said Neely was yelling at passengers and behaving erratically, and Penny held Neely in the chokehold for about 15 minutes.
They said Neely was pacing in the train and yelling that he was hungry and thirsty and did not have much to live for but was not physically threatening anyone or attacking anyone when Penny pinned him.
Neely lost consciousness while in the chokehold and was officially pronounced dead at a hospital after medical responders could not resuscitate him.
Penny and his attorneys have said Neely was “aggressively threatening” him and other passengers, and Penny took action to defend himself and others until authorities arrived on the scene.
Penny was initially questioned by detectives after the incident but released without charge. This sparked outrage among some after the video showed Penny continuing to hold Neely in the chokehold after he had already passed out.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed Penny would be charged with second-degree manslaughter about 10 days after the incident happened. Penny did not enter a plea and was released on $100,000 bond.
The incident has drawn comparisons to the 1984 shooting incident on the New York City subway in which a white man, Bernhard Goetz, shot four Black men who he believed were trying to mug him. All four men survived the shooting.
Updated at 6:47 p.m.