Daniel Penny Revealed As Ex-Marine Who Caused the Chokehold Death of Jordan Neely

The man who placed the late Jordan Neely in a chokehold for seven minutes on a NY Subway has been identified as an ex-Marine, Daniel Penny.

In stories by multiple outlets, former Marine Daniel Penny has been confirmed as the man who choked the late Jordan Neely in a subway earlier this week. In footage from the fatal incident, which occurred on New York City’s F train on Monday (May 1) around 2:15 p.m. EST, 24-year-old Penny is seen with his arm around Neely’s head and neck.

Independent journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez recorded the scene, which shows Penny and two other men holding Neely on the subway floor, which yielded at the Broadway-Lafayette station, until the 30-year-old stopped moving.

Penny’s name began circulating Thursday (May 4) on Twitter, with a report by The Daily Mail naming him as the assailant. Although Penny was taken in by the NYPD for questioning, he was released without charges, which outraged many progressive users on social media. Some in New York City participated in protests and vigils for Neely earlier this week.

Penny’s LinkedIn profile shows that the 24-year-old joined the Marines in 2017 after graduating from West Islip High School. Photos of Penny as a teenager show him playing on his high school lacrosse team.

Although several outlets referred to Penny as just a former Marine earlier this week, Neely’s lengthy arrest record was publicized, along with him once being a Michael Jackson impersonator. “He put his soul into performing and after a few years on the street, he had no soul left,” Lance Clarke, an attorney, told Curbed about his familiarity with Neely. “He was just begging for help.”

When Neely was 14 years old, his mother was killed at the hands of her abusive husband, per NJ.com.