An elderly New York woman has spoken out to defend Daniel Penny, a Marine accused of second-degree manslaughter after acting as a Good Samaritan.

Penny stepped in to intervene when a mentally ill homeless man endangered his fellow New York City subway passengers, placing a chokehold on the individual so that he could not harm others.

Said the unnamed witness, who says she has lived in New York City for 50 years:

I’m sitting on a train reading my book, and all of the sudden, I hear someone spewing this rhetoric. He said, ‘I don’t care if I have to kill an F, I will. I’ll go to jail, I’ll take a bullet,'

She continued:

I’m looking at where we are in the tube, in the sardine can, and I’m like, ‘OK, we’re in between stations. There’s nowhere we can go.' The people on that train, we were scared. We were scared for our lives.

The unnamed elderly woman said that Penny did not want to injure Neely, but just protect his fellow passengers since he kept talking about killing them.

"Nobody wants to kill anybody. Mr. Penny didn’t want to kill that man," she said. “You should have seen the way Mr. Penny looked. He was distraught. He was very, very, very visibly distressed. And he didn’t go. He didn’t run. He stayed.”

Since Penny was a white man, and Neely was black, rumors have swirled that it was a racial situation. But the witness said it had nothing to do with color, and she herself is a self-proclaimed woman of color.

“This isn't about race. This is about people of all colors who were very, very afraid and a man who stepped in to help them," said the woman, who is in her 60s. “Race is being used to divide us.”

According to news coverage on police reports, Jordan Neely was a 30 year old homeless man who was acting erratically and threatening to hurt people, stating that he was not afraid of jail time or a life sentence, and had a long history of crime and mental illness.

Daniel Penny, a 24 year old veteran, was honorably discharged after four years of service in the Marines and received the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and a National Defense ribbon. He is now a full time college student pursuing a degree in architecture.

According to his attorney, Thomas Keniff, Penny turned himself in less than 24 hours after the Manhattan District Attorney’s office revealed that they would pursue charges against him after Neely later died in a hospital.

“He [turned himself in] voluntarily and with the sort of dignity and integrity that is characteristic of his history of service to this grateful nation,” Keniff stated.

Conservatives quickly raised funds for Penny’s bail and legal fees, and have spoken out in his defense.

Fellow veteran, and now conservative influencer, Graham Allen tweeted:

Daniel Penny put his life on the line as a Marine.

 

He stepped up and restrained a violent felon from terrorizing an innocent woman on the subway.

 

HE SHOULD BE FREED.

"The same broken corrupt system that failed this mentally ill individual is now failing to protect a hero that simply was trying to stop the aggression and threats to protect innocent people," Victor Marx, a Marine veteran and founder of All Things Possible, told Fox News. “He had no intent to kill or even injure the attacker, it’s unfortunate that death occurred as a result of a good Samaritan’s desire to protect people. Semper Fi, brother, you will be exonerated and freed.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has come under recent fire from conservatives after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pursued President Donald Trump on felony charges while downgrading 52% of felonies to misdemeanors.

Now, the same office is charging Penny over his actions to help protect his fellow passengers and restrain a violent individual.

The National Police Association tweeted a link to Penny’s fundraiser, adding:

NY subway good Samaritan Daniel Penny head held high, shoulders back. @ManhattanDA Alvin Bragg used the escorting officers, who had no choice, for a shameful photo op. Bragg has stopped good Samaritans from stopping criminals.

Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative political activism group Turning Point USA, tweeted:

Outrageous! We've got millions of law breakers pouring over our border with drugs and guns but no one cares. Meanwhile Daniel Penny is facing 15 years for protecting fellow subway travelers from a deranged, violent, active threat who had 42 prior arrests. NYC is the Twilight Zone.

New York City has increasingly struggled with crime, to the point that former Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s wife told residents in 2021 to stand up for one another and stop harassment and crime – which is what Penny did and is now facing years of prison time as a result.

In the midst of spiking crime and violent riots, Chirlane McRay, then-Mayor DeBlasio’s wife, tweeted out some advice for handling assaults and harassments in the city after supporting an initiative to defund the police.

McRay tweeted:

As attacks on Asian American communities continue, we’re asking New Yorkers to show up for their neighbors and intervene when witnessing hateful violence or harassment. I know that can be frightening when you aren’t sure what to do or say, but you can learn.

She then continued with five tips to de-escalate and handle dangerous assaults, concluding with advice to physically intervene when all else fails:

5. Direct: Respond directly to the aggressor or physically intervene and only after assessing the situation. Be confident, assertive, calm.

 

This is risky, but sometimes all we can do is speak up. If the harasser responds, try your best to focus on assisting the person targeted.

However, the Democrat-led city has still struggled with crime and assaults, making national headlines. Earlier this year, a woman lost her eye after being brutally beaten by a mentally ill homeless man on a New York City subway.

“He was a convicted felon. He was in jail multiple times," the victim, Elizabeth Gomes, said. “He killed his foster grandmother at 14… this guy was supposed to be locked up a long time. He shouldn't even have been walking the street at all with all the felons and cases he had behind him.”

Mere months later, Daniel Penny is being charged with second degree manslaughter after intervening to protect other subway passengers from receiving a similar or worse fate.  Like Gomes’ attacker that left her brutally beaten and with one eye, Jordan Neely had an extensive criminal record.

Neely had 42 prior arrests between 2013 and 2021, and an outstanding warrant due to an alleged assault in 2021. He was arrested two years ago for assaulting a 67 year old woman, as well as attempting to kidnap a seven year old girl that he dragged down the street. He served four months in jail for the kidnap attempt, and never completed the alternative-to-incarceration program for the assault on the elderly woman.

New York City’s medical examiner determined the chokehold as the cause of death, but Penny was not culpable until the Manhattan DA office, often criticized as too soft on crime, charged him with second degree manslaughter.

While Daniel Penny faces years of potential prison over his heroism, many Americans are rallying behind him while calling for an end to the rampage of crime across New York City and other major cities that have suffered from defunded police departments.

“Put down the cellphones to record a violent criminal attacking the innocent and help... that's what this Marine did," said Chad Robichaux, fellow Marine veteran. According to Robichaux, the chokehold Penny used is taught in basic training.

“So when do we stop teaching Marines how to shoot rifles? Marines are trained to defend those who can't defend themselves... something society can learn from," Robichaux added.

Marine veteran and “13 Hours” author Stuart Scheller stated:

Penny did everything right… Once observing the video footage of the Marine and the innocent bystanders… It was clear that Penny held the threat in a basic restraint. The restraint he used, he used while exercising every precaution to the welfare of the individual he was restraining. It was clear in the video that was ensuring that the pressure was not put on the trachea/esophagus but instead put on the carotid artery.

Penny’s fundraiser has exceeded two million dollars, but it is yet to be determined what will happen in the upcoming court dates.