- Penny, a 24-year-old former Marine, put Neely in a chokehold on the New York subway, causing his death.
- Neely's death was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner.
Lawyers for Daniel Penny, the Marine who placed a homeless man named Jordan Neely in a chokehold on the New York subway last week, leading to his death, said he "never intended" to cause any harm.
Penny, a 24-year-old student and Marine veteran "could not have foreseen" Neely's "untimely death," attorneys Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff said in a statement, released on Friday.
Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, was yelling and behaving erratically on the subway on Monday when Penny took matters into his own hands, placing Neely in a chokehold and pulling him to the floor of the subway car. In a video of the incident, two other people can be seen helping Penny restrain Neely.
While the erratic behavior scared some passengers, an eyewitness told The New York Times that Neely never tried to assault any passengers. Neely was yelling about being hungry and thirsty, and said he didn't mind "going to jail and getting life in prison" and was "ready to die," shortly before Penny put him in the fatal chokehold, the witness told the Times.
In an extended video released Friday, another passenger can be seen approaching Penny, saying you're "going to kill him" and that he should be concerned about a "murder charge."
Penny's lawyers, however, said Penny was only protecting himself.
"When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived," the statement from Penny's attorneys said. "Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death."
Raiser and Kenniff did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The former Marine could claim he acted in self-defense, though Neama Rahmani, the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, previously told Insider it appeared to be "vigilante justice."
"The force used, in my opinion, was excessive under the circumstances," Rahmani said. "Personally, I think self-defense is used far too often in this country to justify violence."
New York City's chief medical examiner ruled Neely's death a homicide by compression to the neck, Insider previously reported. Penny has not been charged with any crimes, prompting protests in Manhattan.