New York City Marine veteran Daniel Penny sat down with Judge Jeanine Pirro for a powerful first interview since then jurors found him not guilty of negligent homicide in the subway death of Jordan Neely.
“He just threatened to kill people,” Penny said in a preview clip that aired Tuesday on “The Five.” “He was in danger of going to prison forever, 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 would just let him go, now I lie 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 interrogated and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was high on drugs and threatened to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student found him on a train grabbed. main clamp from behind.
DANIEL PENNY FOUND NOT GUILTY IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
Daniel Penny sits across from Fox News judge Jeanine Pirro for his first television interview following his acquittal in the subway death of Jordan Neely (FOX Nation)
The guilt I would have felt if someone got hurt, if they did what they threatened to do, I could never live with myself. And I’ll have to appear in court a million times with people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed.
Penny described herself as a non-confrontational person. He said all the attention he has received since the incident — strong praise from some, demonization from others — makes him uncomfortable.
“I didn’t want attention or praise, and I still don’t want that,” he said. “The guilt I would have felt if someone got hurt, if he did what he threatened to do, I could never live with myself. And I will be able to handle a million court hearings and people cursing and swearing at me.” people who hate me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed.”
DANIEL PENNY TO NYC BAR FOR POST-ACQUITEMENT CELEBRATION, LET LAWYERS TALK
WATCH: Daniel Penny speaks out for the first time since the acquittal
Penny also criticized the policies of officials like Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who led the failed case against him, as politically motivated and tied to policies that “clearly haven’t worked.”
“(Policies) that the people, the general population, are not in favor of, but their egos are too big to just admit that they are wrong,” he said.
Neely had an active arrest warrant and a lengthy criminal history at the time of his death. He had schizophrenia and a drug problem. Three days before After his encounter with Penny, according to previous reports, a subway passenger on another train was stabbed with an ice pick. A PBS reporter had been beaten on another train, and in the year leading up to Penny’s arrest, more than two dozen people had been driven from the subway platforms.
Daniel Penny arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on Monday, December 9, 2024 in New York City. The jury continues their deliberations in Penny’s trial over the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)
It was a climate of fear that put the straphangers on high alert. Penny even referenced those other cases in a voluntary interview he gave to police after remaining at the scene.
“He was talking gibberish, but these guys push people in front of trains and stuff,” he told investigators. They released him without charge, but Bragg’s office secured charges eleven days later.
Witness Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old student, testified that Neely shouted that someone was “going to die that day.”
Screenshot from bystander video of Jordan Neely being held in a chokehold on the New York City subway. (New York Lights/Juan Alberto Vazquez via Storyful)
“The tone in which he said it scared me,” she said. “I’ve seen situations, but not like this.”
Neely was free to threaten subway passengers on the day of his death, and it was Penny who tried to send Bragg to jail.
Witnesses said Neely’s threats frightened them more than a typical subway rampage. They were grateful for Penny’s intervention.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Jordan Neely is pictured before going to see the Michael Jackson film “This is It” outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Ave in 2009. and 42nd St. in Times Square, New York. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Penny, a Navy veteran who has received a humanitarian award for helping hurricane victims, is originally from Long Island and was described by friends as calm and empathetic during trial testimony. He played lacrosse and was in his school’s orchestra as a teenager. He worked two jobs while studying architecture at university New York City College of Technology after his honorable discharge.
The full interview will stream on FOX Nation on Wednesday.
