Daniel Penny has denied trying to kill Jordan Neely on the New York subway in his first on-camera interview since the incident.
The confrontation, which happened on May 1, was caught on film and showed Penny restraining Neely with the help of two other subway passengers.
Neely had apparently screamed threats and caused a nuisance to people on the subway before the confrontation.
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The restraining ended up being fatal, with Neely said to have died from 'compression of the neck', according to the medical examiner’s office.
As a result, Penny is charged with manslaughter, though he denies 'trying to choke him [Neely] to death'.
In a series of videos released by Penny's lawyers on Sunday (11 June), the 24-year-old denied holding Neely by the throat for 15 minutes, as has been previously reported.
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He also said he had no intention of taking the homeless man's life in a bombshell series of videos.
"The man stumbled on, he appeared to be on drugs, the doors closed, and he ripped his jacket off and threw it down at the people sitting next to me at my left," Penny recalled of the incident.
"I was listening to music at the time, and I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling.
"The three main threats that he repeated over and over again were 'I’m going to kill you, I’m prepared to go to jail for life and I’m willing to die'."
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Penny noted he was frightened by Neely, as he yelled at 'terrified' passengers.
He added that he 'couldn't it still' and potentially watched Neely carry out threats and even attacks to passengers.
"There’s a common misconception that Marines don’t get scared. We’re actually taught one of our core values is courage, and courage is not the absence of fear but how you handle fear," he said.
"I was scared for myself but I looked around there was women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still."
Clarifying the incident itself, Penny claimed: "Some people say that I was holding on to Mr. Neely for 15 minutes. This is not true — between stops is only a couple of minutes. So the whole interaction lasted less than 5 minutes
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"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. I’m trying to restrain him from being able to carry out the threats."
Topics: US News, Crime, News, Daniel Penny, Jordan Neely