Daniel Penny on why he ‘completely believed’ Neely could have killed someone on subway
'The Five' co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro discusses her interview with Daniel Penny after the not guilty verdict in the New York City subway chokehold case.
New York City Marine veteran Daniel Penny sat down with Judge Jeanine Pirro for a powerful first interview since jurors found him not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
"He was just threatening to kill people," Penny said in a preview clip that aired on "The Five" Tuesday. "He was threatening to go to jail forever, go to jail for the rest of his life, and now I'm on the ground with him. I'm on my back in a very vulnerable position…If I'd just let him go, now I'm on my back and he can just turn around and start doing what he said – to me…killing, hurting."
Penny was arrested in May 2023 nearly two weeks after he was questioned and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was high on drugs and threatening to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him in a headlock from behind.
WATCH: EXCLUSIVE DANIEL PENNY INTERVIEW ON FOX NATION
Daniel Penny sits across from Fox News' Judge Jeanine Pirro for his first televised interview following his acquittal in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely (FOX Nation)
The guilt I would've felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself. And I'll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt, or killed.
Penny described himself as a non-confrontational person. He said all the attention he's received since the incident – strong praise from some, demonization from others – makes him uncomfortable.
"I didn't want any attention or praise, and I still don't," he said. "The guilt I would've felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself. And I'll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt, or killed."
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But when Neely started threatening to kill people, Penny said, he believed the madman could do it.
"There's outbursts on the train all the time, unfortunately in New York City there's always people coming on and saying, talking crazy, and this was unlike anything that I've ever experienced, and it was very serious," he said. "I completely believed what he was saying."
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WATCH: Daniel Penny speaks out for first time since acquittal
Penny also took issue with the policies of officials like Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who spearheaded the failed case against him, as politically motivated and beholden to policies that "have clearly not worked."
"[Policies] that the people, the general population, are not in support of, yet their egos are too big just to admit that they're wrong," he said.
Neely had an active arrest warrant and lengthy criminal history at the time of his death. He had schizophrenia and a drug abuse problem. Three days before his encounter with Penny, a subway rider had been stabbed on another train with an ice pick, according to prior reporting. A PBS reporter had been sucker punched on another train, and more than 20 people had been shoved off of subway platforms in the year leading up to Penny's arrest.
Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York City on Monday, December 9, 2024. The jury is continuing their deliberations in Penny’s trial for the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)
It was a climate of fear that put straphangers on high alert. Penny even referenced those other cases in a voluntary interview he gave to police after remaining on scene.
"He was talking gibberish...but these guys are pushing people in front of trains and stuff," he told detectives. They released him without charges, but Bragg's office secured an indictment 11 days later.
WATCH: Daniel Penny retraces steps on day he took subway ride
Witness Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old student, testified that Neely shouted someone would "die that day."
Screenshot from bystander video showing Jordan Neely being held in a chokehold on the New York City subway. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez via Storyful)
"I got scared by the tone that he was saying it," she said. "I have seen situations, but not like that."
Neely was free to threaten subway riders on the day of his death, and it was Penny that Bragg tried to send to prison.
Witnesses testified that Neely's threats scared them more than a typical subway outburst would. They were thankful for Penny's intervention.
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Jordan Neely is pictured before going to see the Michael Jackson movie, "This is It," outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Ave. and 42nd St. in Times Square, New York, in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Penny, a Marine veteran who received a humanitarian award for helping hurricane victims, is a Long Island native who friends described as calm and empathetic during trial testimony. He played lacrosse and was in his school's orchestra as a teen and worked two jobs while studying architecture at the New York City College of Technology following his honorable discharge.
The full interview is not streaming on FOX Nation.
