On May 1, 2023, in New York City, Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old black homeless man, was killed after being put in a chokehold by Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old white United States Marine Corps veteran while riding the New York City Subway. Neely boarded the car Penny was riding and began threatening passengers. After the train left the station, as Neely was threatening passengers, Penny approached Neely from behind to apply the chokehold, and maintained it in a sitting position until Neely went limp a few minutes after the train had reached the next stop. First responders unsuccessfully attempted to revive Neely, who was declared dead after being transported to a hospital. Penny submitted to voluntary questioning at a police precinct office, and was released without charge later the same day.
Two days later, the medical examiner's office ruled that Neely's death was homicide by compression of the neck. A week after that, Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter and released on bond. He was formally indicted by a grand jury, with a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide added on June 28. Penny pleaded not guilty to both charges, under which he faced up to 15 years in prison. His trial began in October 2024 and concluded that December. The manslaughter charge was dismissed on the request of the prosecution after the jury deadlocked. He was then acquitted on the remaining charge of criminally negligent homicide. A wrongful death suit by Neely's father remained pending as of September 2025.
Neely's death and Penny's acquittal sparked controversy and division along partisan and racial lines, renewing debates about New York City's treatment of people with similar histories of homelessness and mental illness. Supporters of Penny characterized him as a hero, highlighting his military service, calling him a Good Samaritan and noting he sought to protect other passengers from a dangerous individual. Critics of Penny portrayed him as a vigilante motivated by racism, whom authorities should have immediately arrested and charged with murder, but had not because of white supremacy. Donations to Penny's legal defense totaled nearly $3 million. Neely's criminal record, which included 42 convictions, including assaults, was another source of controversy.
Incident
The incident took place on the New York City Subway in Manhattan. Some time after 2:00 p.m. (EDT) on May 1, 2023, Neely boarded a northbound F train at the Second Avenue station just before it departed for the Broadway–Lafayette Street station. Penny was in the same train car, planning to go to a gym. Independent journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez, whose video of the chokehold was widely distributed by media, told The New York Times that Neely began screaming, "I don't have food, I don't have a drink, I'm fed up. I don't mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I'm ready to die," which other witnesses largely corroborated. Vázquez also said that Neely was frightening but had not assaulted anyone before Penny’s headlock. Other witnesses reported Neely throwing garbage at passengers, and a mother stated that she hid with her child behind a stroller after Neely charged at other passengers. About one minute after Neely boarded it, the train reached Broadway–Lafayette Street station. Most riders exited the car while a few others held open the train doors, preventing the train from leaving the station, and waited for police to arrive.
Statements about the duration of the chokehold vary significantly. Vázquez initially told NBC New York, and posted on Facebook, that the chokehold lasted for 15 minutes, but later told CNN that "the two men were on the floor for about seven minutes" and that he "started recording about three or four minutes after the chokehold began". The video showed Penny continuously applying the hold for at least 3 minutes before releasing Neely. Even so, the 15-minute figure continued to be widely circulated, which Penny disputed at the time, saying it had only lasted 5. In Penny's criminal trial, prosecutors said that the chokehold began less than 30 seconds before the train arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette Street station, and lasted for 6 minutes.
Neely struggled against the chokehold by kicking and trying to free his arms, which were being pinned by two other men. A witness said that it did not look like Penny had control of the situation due to the struggle.
Vázquez said that Penny asked other riders to call the police while he had the chokehold. Penny had learned the technique for restraint in basic training. Another witness said that at some point during the chokehold, Penny relaxed his grip on Neely, and Neely coughed up a wad of blood and mucus. The same witness noted that nobody on the train car was telling Penny to stop his chokehold, and that some passengers expressed hostile statements toward Neely and support for Penny's actions.
At 2:29 p.m., a passenger on the train warned that Neely had defecated on himself, a sign that he may be dying, saying, "You don't want to catch a murder charge. You got a hell of a chokehold, man." One of the other men restraining Neely responded, saying that the excrement on Neely's pants was old. He also responded to the warning by saying that Penny had stopped "squeezing" Neely's neck.
About 50 seconds after Neely became motionless, Penny and one man who was still restraining Neely's arms released their hold on him. Shortly thereafter, a man named Johnny Grima can be seen in the video saying, "Don't put him on his back though, man. He might choke on his own spit." Penny placed Neely on his side, into a recovery position. Grima said that he put water on Neely's forehead, but was told to stop by Penny. Other passengers also checked on him, including an onlooker who warned Penny about killing Neely, who said, "He's all right. He ain't gonna die."
The New York Police Department reportedly received a call at 2:27 p.m. about a fight on the train, and arrived before 2:30 p.m., administering first aid to an unconscious Neely. Another source says the first call was around 2:25 p.m. according to police. The NYPD issued a press release on May 4 which said they had responded at 2:27 p.m. to calls made before that time. The New York City Fire Department received a call for help at 2:39 p.m., arriving at 2:46 p.m. At least five 9-1-1 calls were made, with some initial reports describing a homeless man that some found to be threatening in his mannerisms and volume. An officer arriving at the scene asked how Neely ended up on the floor, and Penny said that he had "put him out". Responding officers testified that Neely had a faint pulse on their arrival, and was initially given Narcan and eventually CPR.
Neely was pronounced dead after being transported to Lenox Hill Hospital.
People involved
Jordan Neely
Jordan Maurice Caine Neely was a 30-year-old man who grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey. Neely had an extensive criminal record, including 42 arrests for offenses such as petty larceny, theft, jumping subway turnstiles, and assaults. Between 2019 and 2021, he was arrested three times for unprovoked assaults on women in the subway.
Neely was frequently homeless and had a history of mental health issues. In 2007, when he was 14 years old, his mother was murdered by a man with whom she had been in an abusive relationship. Her body was found in a suitcase on the side of the Henry Hudson Parkway. Neely was called to testify at the trial. According to his aunt, Neely developed major depression, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the murder of his mother. He later was placed in foster care as a youth.
As an adult, Neely was known for his performances as a Michael Jackson impersonator, performing in Times Square and subway stations. He was said to be a talented dancer. According to The Guardian, once Neely became homeless he slipped "into a cycle of mental health crises, arrests and hospitalization that would continue until his death". He had been a client of the Bowery Residents' Committee, which attempted to find him permanent shelter. From 2019 until the time of his death, he was included on what was informally known as the "Top 50 List", a city-maintained roster of homeless people considered to be most in need of assistance and treatment, to which they are often resistant.
Neely's funeral was held on May 19 at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem. At least 200 people were present, while a small group of peaceful protesters gathered outside. In addition to Neely's family and friends, several Democratic politicians, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams, and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, also attended.
Civil rights activist and Baptist minister Al Sharpton delivered Neely's eulogy, in which he criticized what he saw as systematic abuse and criminalization of people with mental illness, and double standards of the police and criminal justice system on the basis of race. He objected to the characterization by some of Penny as a "good Samaritan", saying, "A good Samaritan helps those in trouble, they don't choke him out."
Neely was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Westchester County in a private service.
Daniel Penny
Daniel Penny is a former United States Marine Corps infantry squad leader who attained the rank of sergeant in his four years of service. He was raised in West Islip, Long Island, New York. He was 24 years old the time of the incident, and was studying architecture and engineering at New York City College of Technology. His military combat training included how to render a person unconscious in a non-lethal manner with the chokehold he used on Neely.
Penny joined U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance at the 2024 Army–Navy American football game as a "guest of honor" shortly after his acquittal. A few months later, Penny was hired by a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, as a "deal partner" in the division of the firm specializing in "aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chain, industrials, and manufacturing." Firm outsiders expressed private concerns about Penny's hiring, citing his lack of investment experience and the political controversy surrounding his trial. An internal memo obtained by the newspaper defended his hiring, saying that Penny's military experience would help build relationships with "active-duty military, veterans, chiefs of police, sheriffs" deals with in its public safety and defense businesses.
Legal proceedings
Investigation and indictment
Penny was interviewed by police first responders at the scene, then voluntarily at a precinct office by police detectives later that day. During the recorded interview at the NYPD's 5th Precinct, detectives administered Miranda warnings but did not inform Penny that Neely had died; a homicide detective later testified at trial that Penny was unaware of Neely's death at the time of questioning. Penny told interviewers that Neely entered the train while saying, "I'm gonna kill everybody. I could go to prison forever, I don't care." He demonstrated the hold to the detectives, saying he was only trying to restrain Neely and deescalate the situation, not to kill him. Penny was released without charges a few hours later.
On May 5, 2023, Penny's attorneys released a statement offering his condolences to Neely's family, stating that he "never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death" and that "[w]hen Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived." In the same video, Penny repeated what he had told police about Neely's behavior, disputed that he had been motivated by racism, and said that he had not applied the hold for 15 minutes as alleged by Vázquez: "Between stops, it was only a couple of minutes, so the whole interaction, less than five minutes. Some people say I was trying to choke him to death – which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him. You can see in the video there's a clear rise and fall of his chest, indicating that he's breathing."
Three days later, attorneys representing Neely's family released a statement about Penny's press release, saying it "is not an apology nor an expression of regret. It is a character assassination and a clear example of why he believed he was entitled to take Jordan's life ... He never attempted to help him at all. In short, his actions on the train, and now his words, show why he needs to be in prison."
On May 3, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed that his office had begun an investigation into Neely's death. Also that day, the medical examiner's office determined the manner of death to be homicide, stating that Neely died from "compression of neck (chokehold)". On May 11, Bragg's office announced that Penny would be charged with second degree manslaughter, which carries a penalty of between five and 15 years in prison. On May 12, Penny turned himself in to police for arrest and was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court. Since he had not been indicted by a grand jury, he chose not to enter a plea, and was released from custody on $100,000 cash bail. He was required to surrender his passport and instructed to not leave New York without approval.
A grand jury was impaneled on May 31 and indicted Penny on June 14. At a second arraignment on June 28, the grand jury's indictment was unsealed, revealing a lesser second charge of criminally negligent homicide. A second-degree manslaughter conviction requires the prosecution to prove the defendant knew the potential to cause death, and acted recklessly. A criminally negligent homicide conviction requires proof that the defendant's actions unjustifiably risked Neely's death, but without awareness of the danger.
The two other men who helped to restrain Neely were not charged.
On January 17, 2024, presiding judge Maxwell Wiley declined a defense motion for dismissal, citing the strength of video evidence and the medical examiner's cause of death finding.