
The Marine veteran who is charged with manslaughter in the New York City subway chokehold death of a homeless black man has broken his silence to insist that the killing had nothing to do with race.
‘I judge a person based on their character. I’m not a white supremacist,’ Daniel Penny told the New York Post in an interview on Saturday, a week after he was hit with a second-degree manslaughter charge in the death of Jordan Neely.
The May 1 confrontation was caught on video, showing Penny restraining Neely with the help of two other passengers, after the homeless Michael Jackson impersonator reportedly screamed threats and menaced people on the train.
Now, Penny suggests he would take action again if faced with similar circumstances, nodding and telling Post: ‘I would — if there was a threat and danger in the present…’
On Friday, Neely’s funeral was held in Harlem, where Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a fiery eulogy to a crowd of hundreds, saying ‘when they choked Jordan, they put their arms around all of us’.
But Penny, who is currently free on a $100,000 bail, rejected the suggestion that his fatal confrontation with Neely was an act of hatred or discrimination, saying, ‘This had nothing to do with race.’