A former US Marine who was caught on video putting a homeless man in a fatal chokehold on a subway train has been indicted by a New York grand jury.
The decision to indict Daniel Penny on second-degree manslaughter charges comes after prosecutors had already charged him last month.
The grand jury’s decision was necessary to formally proceed with the charges, and Penny is currently out on bail. Penny claims that he acted in self-defense during the incident that took place on May 1st.
Details of the formal charging document are expected to be disclosed at a later date. If convicted of second-degree manslaughter, Penny could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The 24-year-old former Marine was initially allowed to leave the scene of Jordan Neely’s death but was later arrested on May 12th. He was taken into custody, handcuffed, and brought to a police station before being released on a $100,000 in-cash bail.
In a video posted on social media on Sunday, Penny stated that he did not have the intention to kill Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had reportedly been shouting at subway riders prior to the altercation.
“There’s a common misconception that Marines don’t get scared,” he said in the video.
“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 added, saying he felt compelled to confront Mr Neely as he acted erratically towards passengers.
“I was scared for myself but I looked around there were women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still.”
Video of the incident captured by a freelance journalist on the train shows the former Marine holding Mr Neely around the neck for two minutes and 55 seconds.
In the video released on Sunday, Mr Penny said the whole interaction was less than five minutes.
“I was listening to music at the time, and he was yelling, so I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling,” he said.
“And the three main threats that he repeated over and over was ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life,’ and ‘I’m willing to die.'”
Family of Mr Neely say that the second-degree manslaughter charge should be upgraded to murder.
The killing shocked the city and led to questions about the safety of public transit and treatment for mentally ill homeless New Yorkers.