Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Man who filmed Daniel Penny fatally choking Jordan Neely on NYC subway testifies
By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 4, 2024
Modified Nov 4, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 4, 2024
Modified Nov 4, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
When a man stuck his hand through the closing door of an uptown F train, squeezed inside, threw his jacket on the ground and started yelling, Juan Alberto Vázquez took out his phone and snapped a photo, he said while testifying in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday.
Vázquez, an independent journalist from Mexico, said it was moments later when he started to film a video after another passenger, Daniel Penny, wrapped his arm around Jordan Neely’s neck and brought him to the floor. Vázquez said in court that he thought the violent encounter was out of the ordinary and should be documented.
“For some reason, I just kept recording,” Vázquez said in Spanish through an interpreter on the second full day of Penny’s criminal trial in Manhattan.
After Vázquez posted his video on social media, the clip spread online, prompting protests and calls to charge Penny, whose identity at the time was unknown. Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been homeless, had schizophrenia and used synthetic cannabinoids before his death, according to court records.
Defense attorneys say Penny put Neely in a chokehold to subdue him after 30-year-old Neely began yelling threats on the subway. Prosecutors say Penny was well intentioned but went “way too far” and should have known that wrapping his arms around Neely’s neck for about six minutes could kill him.
On Monday, Vázquez and other passengers who were on the train that day described in detail what they saw, heard and felt in the moments before Neely died. Prosecutors also played a 911 call from a passenger and showed cell phone videos that captured parts of the incident, including an extended version of the one Vázquez published on social media.
A teen who was on her way home from school testified that she nervously buried her head in her friend’s chest as Neely yelled that he had no food, no money and didn’t care if he went back to jail. Ivette Rosario, 19, said Neely’s tone scared her, and that she felt like she might pass out.
“I just wanted the doors to open,” she said.
Rosario said she saw Neely stick his hand through the door where she was standing just as the F train was about to pull away, take off what she referred to as a sweater and throw it on the ground. As she fearfully hid her face in her friend’s chest, Rosario said, she heard a boom. Then she saw the two men on the floor, with Penny’s arm wrapped around Neely’s neck.
Jurors watched a minute-long video Rosario recorded on her phone, which showed one of Rosario’s hands shaking as she paced on the platform. In that recording, a woman can be heard saying “he’s dying.” They also listened to the 911 call she placed moments after exiting the train, in which she described what she’d just seen and said the person causing harm was Black. Neely was Black and Penny is white.
Rosario said she described Neely as the aggressor because of his tone when he boarded the train, but that she didn’t see any weapons on him or see him touch anyone. She also said Neely didn’t seem to be yelling at anyone in particular.
Prosecutors also showed an extended version of the video Vázquez posted online. The five-minute recording, filmed partially from the platform at the Broadway-Lafayette station and partially inside the train car, shows Penny underneath Neely, with his left arm wrapped around Neely’s neck. Two men stand on either side of them, one holding Neely’s left hand. In a portion of the clip that hasn’t been published before, Neely uses his free hand to tap the other man on his knee and wave. As that man crouches toward Neely, Penny keeps his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck.
Jurors watched as Neely tried to break free, his sneakers squeaking on the floor of the subway. Vazquez described this to jurors as Neely’s “last effort.” Then, the video shows Neely’s legs stop moving.
A man can be heard in the video urging Penny to let go, because he thinks that Neely has defecated on himself.
“You’re gonna kill him now,” the man says.
That man was Larry Goodson, another passenger on the train that day who testified Monday. He told jurors that his fiancée served in the Marines and that he grew concerned when he saw what looked like the military chokeholds she had described in stories over the years. He said he became particularly worried when he saw what looked like brownness and wetness on Neely’s pants.
Goodson said Penny wouldn’t respond or let go of the chokehold when he warned that Neely might die. Shortly after, Goodson said, he walked away and boarded an uptown D train. He still had to get to work.
This story has been updated with new information.
Tagged
new york city
public safety
manhattan
transportation
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .