Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who choked and killed Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on the subway last week, surrendered on Friday to face a charge of second-degree manslaughter.
Mr. Penny, 24, dressed in a dark gray suit, walked through the front doors of the Police Department’s Fifth Precinct at around 8 a.m.
Mr. Penny encountered Jordan Neely, 30, on an F train on May 1 and placed him in a chokehold, killing him. Witnesses told the police that Mr. Neely had been shouting at passengers, but there has been no indication that he physically attacked anyone.
The police interviewed Mr. Penny, but initially released him without charging him. The struggle on the F train was captured in a four-minute video showing Mr. Penny choking Mr. Neely and holding on for an additional 50 seconds after Mr. Neely stopped struggling.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed on Thursday that it planned to charge Mr. Penny in the killing.
Mr. Penny’s lawyers, Steven M. Raiser and Thomas A. Kenniff, said in a statement Thursday that they were “confident that once all the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are brought to bear, Mr. Penny will be fully absolved of any wrongdoing.”
In the days after Mr. Neely’s killing, many city leaders, politicians and advocates for New Yorkers struggling with mental illness and homelessness had called for Mr. Penny’s immediate arrest. They said Mr. Neely’s killing highlighted the city’s failure to care for its most vulnerable and marginalized residents.
Some Democratic politicians had criticized Mayor Eric Adams for his muted initial response to the killing. But on Wednesday, more than a week after it occurred, the mayor gave a speech in which he said Mr. Neely’s “life mattered” and that his death was a “tragedy that never should have happened.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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