Lennon Edwards, a lawyer for the family of Mr. Neely, said in an interview on Friday that Mr. Neely’s death was unacceptable. “He was robbed of his life in a brutal way by someone who decided that they were judge, jury and executioner on the spot,” he said. “We can’t have vigilantes, and we can’t have people taking the law into their own hands.”
At 2:29 p.m., another passenger can be heard in the video saying that his wife had been in the military and knew about chokeholds, and warning the men that they should make sure Mr. Neely had not defecated on himself.
“You don’t want to catch a murder charge,” he said. “You got a hell of a chokehold, man.”
The men then placed Mr. Neely, who was motionless, on his side. A transit worker can be heard over the loudspeaker calling for the police.
“He’s all right,” the passenger who had given the warnings said. “He ain’t gonna die.”
If Mr. Penny is charged by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg,
prosecutors would presumably have to prove that he used deadly force without having believed that Mr. Neely was also using deadly force or was about to. Mr. Edwards and his partner, Donte Mills, the lawyers for Mr. Neely’s family, said that witnessed had told them that Mr. Penny came up behind Mr. Neely and grabbed him.
Daniel Penny choked Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway train on May 1. Mr. Penny has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.
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