Thomas Kenniff, an attorney representing Marine veteran Daniel Penny, called out the apparent irony of his client’s prosecution as violent acts continue to occur on the New York City subway.
Kenniff appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” to discuss his reaction to a shooting which occurred inside an NYC subway Thursday. While details continue to unfold, authorities stated Friday the 32-year-old man who allegedly shot a 36-year-old man on the train will not be charged due to acting in “self-defense.”
Fox host Jesse Watters questioned Kenniff on how charges were filed against Penny in relation to the death of Jordan Neely in May 2023, but not against others like the 32-year-old suspect. Kenniff stated that while he was “happy” to know that “anyone” found “defending themselves” is not being prosecuted, he found it frustrating as he compared the similar situations. (RELATED: Man Shot In Head On New York Subway, Police Say)
“I’m happy that anyone who’s defending themselves and is justified — as based on this video it certainly looks like that individual was — is not being charged. I don’t want to see anybody in my client’s situation. My client doesn’t want to have to see anybody walk in his shoes. But is it frustrating? Yes, it’s absolutely frustrating. You know what’s interesting, Jesse, having watched that video so much of the situation my client encountered last May on the subway, when he was coming back from college and Jordan Neely entered the subway car, waited for the doors to close, and then began his unhinged rant, threatening people, threatening to kill people, telling frightened women and children that he was going to go back to jail for the rest of his life, so much of it began in a similar way that we see this video beginning: somebody walking on who’s clearly deranged, announcing to a packed subway car that he was going to perpetrate violence,” Kenniff stated.
Kenniff then stated the “appreciation” he had for how Penny handled the situation, noting the unpredictability of someone being armed with a knife or gun when getting into an altercation on the subway.
“You really get an appreciation of how my client, Daniel Penny, handled the situation. He went up behind Jordan Neely, [and] used not a chokehold but a restraint move to take him down to the ground. It’s uncontested by the eyewitnesses who were on that subway car that Danny went down and took the fall that brought Jordan Neely down on top of him, then restrained him with the intent of waiting until police arrived. If you approach it a different way, as we saw in the video that you just showed, and you square off with someone, you don’t know if they are armed, you don’t know if they have knives, you don’t know if they have guns and the situation can devolve into exactly what we saw in that video. So, yeah, is there a cruel irony that my client who did everything the right way to try to protect himself and others on the subway is the one being prosecuted while others, again, thankfully, are not? Yeah, I think that’s fair to say.”
Thursday’s incident involved an “aggressive and provocative” 36-year-old man who reportedly initially approached the 32-year-old man on the Northbound A train, according to New York City Police Department (NYPD) authorities. As the two argued, a firearm was allegedly pulled out by the 36-year-old who began to walk towards the 32-year-old in a “menacing way.” Authorities believe the 32-year-old was able to get the gun away from the 36-year-old during a physical altercation and reportedly fired off multiple shots that hit the man.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced March 6 she would be deploying 750 members of the New York National Guard and 250 state troopers to the subway system in response to to an increase in crime, which has increased by 13% year-to-year.