New York, May 17 (RHC)-- In New York City, Daniel Penny, the ex-U.S. Marine who choked beloved street performer Jordan Neely to death while on the subway, has been arraigned on a charge of second-degree manslaughter and freed pending trial.
Neely’s family blasted the charge as overly lenient for the unprovoked killing, in which Penny used a technique known to be lethal. Before he was killed, Jordan Neely was crying out that he was hungry, and may have been suffering a mental health crisis.
Donte Mills, an attorney for the Neely family, told reporters: "No one on that train asked Jordan, ’What’s wrong? How can I help you?’ He was choked to death instead. So, for everybody saying, ’I’ve been on the train, and I’ve been afraid before, and I can’t tell you what I would have done in that situation,’ I’m going to tell you: Ask how you can help. Please. Don’t attack. Don’t choke. Don’t kill. Don’t take someone’s life. Don’t take someone’s loved one from them because they’re in a bad place.”