Daniel Penny says he couldn't live with guilt if Jordan Neely hurt subway passengers

Marine veteran Daniel Penny said releasing Jordan Neely from the chokehold would have left him in a 'vulnerable' position

Michael Ruiz / FOX News 

 

New York City Marine veteran Daniel Penny sat down with Judge Jeanine Pirro for a powerful first interview since jurors found him not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.

"He was just threatening to kill people," Penny said in a preview clip that aired on "The Five" Tuesday. "He was threatening to go to jail forever, go to jail for the rest of his life, and now I'm on the ground with him. I'm on my back in a very vulnerable position…If I'd just let him go, now I'm on my back and he can just turn around and start doing what he said – to me…killing, hurting."

Penny was arrested in May 2023 nearly two weeks after he was questioned and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was high on drugs and threatening to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him in a headlock from behind. Read more and see video here.