A 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran named David Penny has been publicly identified as the man who killed Jordan Neely, 30, a dancer and Michael Jackson impersonator, on the New York subway, two senior law enforcement officials told the New York Times.
On Monday, Neely, who was homeless and seemingly having a mental health crisis, was reportedly yelling and acting erratically on a New York Subway, when Penny put him in a fatal chokehold on a Manhattan subway train. Part of the incident was captured on video by Juan Alberto Vazquez, an independent journalist. Vazquez told the New York Times that Neely had not assaulted anyone before he was put in a chokehold for approximately 15 minutes.
In the nearly four-minute video, a white man the Times identified as Penny is seen holding Neely, who is Black, in a chokehold on the floor of a stopped train, while two people help him restrain Neely’s arms. When Neely stops moving, Penny gets up and multiple people turn Neely on his side. Police told reporters they took him into custody, questioned him, and released him.
The medical examiner determined Neely died via compression to his neck caused by the chokehold and ruled a homicide.
Penny has not been charged in Neely’s killing, and has retained criminal defense attorney Thomas Kenniff to represent him, according to the report, setting up a potential trial with former rival Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Kenniff told the Times that his firm Raiser & Kenniff had been in contact with the district attorney’s office and the Police Department regarding Neely’s death.
Kenniff did not respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone.
The family of Jordan Neely has hired Mills & Edwards LLP to represent them. “I took this case because 15 minutes is too long to go without help, intervention and without air. Passengers are not supposed to die on the floor of our subways,” said Attorney Edwards in a statement.
Neely was a performer and known in the city for his impersonations of Michael Jackson, dressing up as the singer and moonwalking in front of train commuters. “I was always in awe seeing him dance when I did,” said Brenna Crowley, who knew Neely, wrote on Facebook. Neely was autistic and began to suffer from mental illness after his mother was murdered in 2007, his father, Andre Zachery, told the New York Daily News. A New Jersey man was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2012 for the murder of Christie Neely and “dumping her body in a suitcase in the Bronx,” the Jersey Journal reported.
“It traumatized him. He was not expecting that, the brutal way she was taken,” said Carolyn Neely, who has set up a GoFundMe page for her nephew. “That had a big impact on him. The brutality behind that.”
Neely’s death has drawn polarizing reactions from across the country, and follows the killing of BLM protester Garrett Foster and Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to pardon his convicted murderer; the shooting of teen Ralph Yarl, who rang a neighbor’s doorbell; and the death of Kaylin Gillis, who pulled into the wrong driveway before the homeowner opened fire. In each instance, including Neely’s killing, debates on self-defense, Stand Your Ground laws, and the Second Amendment have become a point of contention for the nation.
In a statement on Wednesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams appeared to redirect blame to Neely’s mental health as a contributing factor to his death. “There’s a lot we don’t know about what happened here, so I’m going to refrain from commenting further,” he said. “However, we do know that there were serious mental health issues in play here, which is why our administration has made record investments in providing care to those who need it and getting people off the streets and the subways, and out of dangerous situations.”
Although Adams has paraded plans for future investments in mental healthcare, the city has continued to cut services for those in need.
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said Neely was “murdered” in a tweet Thursday, and criticized officials for their lack of action over his killing. “I have yet to hear a real explanation from any official hesitating to condemn the killing of Jordan Neely about what makes condemning this violence so ‘complicated,’” she wrote. “Killing is wrong. Killing the poor is wrong. Killing the mentally ill is wrong. Why is that so hard to say?”
Penny graduated from West Islip High School in 2017 and enlisted in the Marines in 2017. He served as a rifleman in the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and separated from the service 2021, according to a Marine Corps spokesperson.
While the veteran has not been charged, prosecutors are reportedly considering potential charges against Penny, with the Manhattan district attorney’s office “weighing if the case should go to a grand jury to determine if charges should be brought.”
Eli Northrup, the policy director for the criminal defense practice at the Bronx Defenders, told the Times that the level of scrutiny given extended to filing charges in this incident is atypical. He said, “The practice is to arrest and charge first, ask questions later, especially when the person being arrested is Black, brown or poor.”