NYC Subway Chokeholder Identified As Daniel Penny: Reports

NEW YORK, NY — The man who choked a fellow subway passenger to death has been identified by officials sources as a former Marine from Long Island named Daniel J. Penny, according to reports

Penny's name was confirmed by a Marine Corps representative who spoke with the Daily Mail Friday and in a New York Post report.

The West Islip man served in the Marines for four years until 2021, when he left at the rank of Sergeant, according to prior reports on his service history.

The two outlets report it was he who put Jordan Neely, 30, in a 15-minute chokehold on the floor of an uptown F train near the Broadway-Lafayette station in Manhattan Monday.

Neely, a well known Michael Jackson impersonator, had been acting erratically when fellow straphangers decided to restrain him, reports show.

Penny was released from police custody after questioning and not charged with a crime, according to police and reports.

The case has officially since been ruled a homicide.

Police and the Manhattan District Attorney's office are currently deciding whether to arrest the Marine for Neely's death.

Neely had a troubled history of mental health issues and a rap sheet filled mostly with minor offenses, but also some few assaults, according to reports.

One of his alleged victims told the Daily News on Thursday that Neely "should have been in rehab," and not left on the streets.

Neely's aunt says the young man was never the same after his mother's murder. Christie Neely died, when her son was about 16, of strangulation.