Police detected a pulse on homeless man Jordan Neely after Navy veteran Daniel Penny strangled him, explosive new body camera footage reveals.
The video was made public today as Penny’s manslaughter trial began in Manhattan.
Penny, then 24, is accused of killing Neely by applying what prosecutors say was a fatal chokehold.
Navy veteran Daniel Penny arrives at a Manhattan courthouse Friday for the first day of his involuntary manslaughter trial.
New body camera shows two police officers checking Neely’s pulse and finding one
The May 2023 incident caused an uproar in the United States: BLM says it was the racist murder of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military loyalist.
Others say Penny is a hero, a modern-day Batman who intervened when Neely made aggressive threats on the subway, including to a little boy whose mother protected him with a stroller.
During today’s opening statements, body camera footage was shown of the moment police officers found Neely.
Two police officers confirmed that Neely still had a pulse when they arrived.
“I have a pulse,” one said. A second police officer confirmed that he also felt a pulse.
Penny, on the left, waited for the police to arrive. He told them: ‘I took it out,’ when asked how Neely ended up unconscious.
Neely was unconscious, lying on the floor of the subway car.
When asked how Neely ended up there, Penny responded, “I kicked him out.”
In their opening statements Friday, Manhattan prosecutors said: “Jordan Neely He breathed his last on the dirty floor of an uptown F train. I was 30 years old, homelessmentally ill
“He literally went for the jugular,” said Deputy District Attorney Dafna Yoran.
The prosecution accepted that Neely had been “threatening” train passengers.
But he said the entire exchange, from the moment Neely boarded the train to the moment the doors opened at the next station, lasted just 30 seconds.
It was Penny’s decision to keep Neely restrained for an additional five minutes and 53 seconds that formed the basis of the state’s case.
“He literally immediately went for the jugular,” she said.
‘We come across people like Jordan Neely every day. As New Yorkers, we train ourselves not to interact, not to make eye contact, to pretend that people like Jordan Neely don’t exist.’
The May 2023 incident caused an uproar in the United States: BLM says it was the racist murder of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military loyalist.
Yoran told jurors that another man who helped take Neely to the ground repeatedly told Penny he could let her go because he had a strong grip on her arms.
‘The defendant has specialized training in strangulations. A person faints and must be released immediately… a green belt Marine learns and knows it clearly.
“He pushed Mr. Neely to the point of no return, where he would surely die. When he let go, he put Neely on the ground and didn’t look back. He grabbed his hat, dusted himself off, and stood over her body.
Yoran said Penny’s defense that she was acting to protect other vulnerable passengers on the train cannot be considered beyond the point that all passengers had fled the train.
‘(The level of force) may have been reasonable initially, (Neely’s behavior) would justify an initial use of force. But by the time Penny killed Mr. Neely, there was no one to protect. At that time there was no excuse or justification for the lethal use of physical force.’
While the state intends to argue that Penny never relinquished the initial pressure she put on Neely’s neck, the defense insists that she made several attempts to loosen her grip, and that she only had slight control over Neely when she stopped fighting back. .
‘This fight lasted five to six minutes. But Danny wasn’t and couldn’t have been squeezing his neck. “We know this because if it was, Neely would have passed out in the first minute,” Kenniff said.
Opening statements began Friday after a grueling two-week process to select the 12-person jury.
An initial search was conducted for Neely’s body and jacket, which were nearby.
No weapons were found and the only possession he had at the time was a muffin stuffed in his jacket pocket.
Police initially felt a weak pulse and administered a Narcan injection.
Once the pulse disappeared, officers began performing CPR and then administered another injection of Narcan.
Neely did not regain consciousness at any time.
Kenniff argued that Penny only intended to intervene until the police could come and take over.
“Something that took a lot longer than expected,” he said.
From the moment the police received the call, it took seven minutes for first responders to arrive.
It was another 10 minutes until emergency services arrived with a defibrillator and more resources.
“Danny was desperately waiting for the police to show up and help him the same way he had helped other passengers on this train,” Kenniff said.
The test is expected to last up to six weeks and will call in medical experts, first responders and other passengers who were on the train that day.
