‘I Just Put Him Out’: How Daniel Penny Described Fatal Chokehold on Jordan Neely

Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny described putting homeless man Jordan Neely in a “choke” and struggling with him on the floor of a subway car in a series of statements to police officers after the fatal encounter, according to a court document released Wednesday. 

Penny, 24, was arraigned Wednesday on an indictment that charged him with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide at a brief court hearing Wednesday and entered a plea of not guilty. 

After the hearing, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office released a form describing information they’ll share with Penny’s defense attorneys, which included statements he made to police after the killing on May 1. 

“I just put him out. I just put him in a chokehold,” Penny told a New York Police Department officer and a sergeant inside the Broadway-Lafayette station at about 2:30 p.m. that afternoon. 

“He came on and he threw s—t, he’s like I don’t give a s—t, I’m going to go to prison for life and stuff, so I just came up behind him and put him in a chokehold. He was threatening everybody,” he added. 

“I was standing behind him. I think I might have just put him in a choke, put him down. We just went to the ground. He was trying to roll up, I had him pretty good, I was in the Marine Corps,” another officer reported Penny told him. 

“He was rolling, he was rolling, when he was in a choke he was going crazy,” he told another officer, according to the report. 

Prosecutors also noted they recovered a total of five cellphone videos from three witnesses, but did not disclose what the videos show, according to the documents. 

Penny was taken into custody by the police following Neely's death but released without charges, leading to a series of protests in the city. 

On May 12, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Penny with second-degree manslaughter and he was released on $100,000 bond.

Penny was allowed to remain free on the same conditions Wednesday.