The attorney for former Marine Daniel Penny said Monday that the chokehold and death of homeless man Jordan Neely had “nothing to do with race.”
Penny, 24, surrendered himself into the 5th Precinct in Lower Manhattan on Friday where prosecutors charged him with second-degree manslaughter over the death of 30-year-old Neely. His lawyers have said Penny did not intend to harm Neely, who allegedly acted erratically on a New York Subway train, and held him in the chokehold to protect his fellow passengers, NBC News reported
Penny’s attorney, Steven Raiser, assured that his client’s action had no relation to Neely being a black man.
“None of that is based on the facts,” Raiser told Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro in response to race allegations. “As to race, it’s simply not the motivation for Danny. He is the one that put himself in danger to save who? All the people on that train. Black people, brown people, white people, it didn’t matter to Danny. Danny put his life at risk to save all those people, it has nothing to do with race.”
Raiser said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office notified attorneys via phone call that Penny was to surrender himself in court the following day. The office confirmed Penny was to be brought forth with a manslaughter charge in a Thursday statement. (RELATED: Liberal Billionaires Funded The Communist-Linked Group Pushing Jordan Neely Protests)
Penny’s legal fund surpassed $2 million in donations as of Monday, just three days after being charged.
A 66-year-old witness on the train said Neely reportedly threatened he would “kill a motherf*cker” despite going to jail for the rest of his life, and said Penny only interfered when things “got out of hand,” according to the New York Post. The witness reportedly thanked Penny and said she was “praying” for him after the incident.
The family of Neely accused Penny of acting in “indifference” and called on him to be imprisoned in a May 8 statement released by their attorneys.
Neely’s death sparked protests in New York City subways and streets, leading to conflicts with law enforcement. Police made 11 arrests from a May 9 protest after officers ordered protesters to stop blocking the streets and recovered a Molotov cocktail.