A 911 call played Thursday during Daniel Penny’s high-profile Manhattan manslaughter trial captured a subway passenger telling cops that troubled homeless man, Jordan Neely, was “trying to attack everybody” before the former Marine put him in a chokehold.
Moriela Sanchez, 18, asked the 911 operator to send cops and an ambulance because someone was attacking people on the uptown F train subway car, according to audio of the call revealed during her testimony in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“He’s trying to attack everybody,” Sanchez said of Neely. When asked to identify the race of the “attacker,” she said he was black — and that a man “holding him down” was white.
“There’s one white man holding him down, holding the homeless guy down,” she could be heard saying during the one-minute recording.
In a 911 call played during Daniel Penny’s manslaughter trial, a passenger claimed that Jordan Neely was “trying to attack everybody” on the subway car. NYC Courts
Penny arriving at Manhattan Criminal Court for the third day of his trial on Nov. 7, 2024. Grabriella Bass for the New York Post“There’s one white man holding him down,” she could be heard saying during the brief recording.
Sanchez is a friend of Ivette Rosario, who testified on Monday she was “scared” of Neely and shot video of the May 2023 incident with her cellphone, showing Penny holding the homeless man on the subway car as bystanders plead with him to “let him go.”
“Penny put his hands around [Neely’s] neck and then dropped him down so he wouldn’t attack anybody,” Sanchez told jurors on Thursday.
Video that Sanchez took with her cellphone of a lifeless Neely laying on the floor of the subway car was also played for the jury.
Moriela Sanchez, 18, asked the 911 operator to send police to the subway while Penny confronted Neely. NYC CourtsSanchez began filming after exiting the train, shooting through the subway car window as officers started arriving at the scene.
“Oh my gosh,” Sanchez could be heard saying in the video. “He’s not breathing.”
“He’s not breathing … he’s dead,” the teen said.
During Sanchez’ nearly three-minute long video, first responders can be seen taking Neely’s pulse and trying to revive him.
A NYPD officer checking on Neely after arriving at the train. NYPDWhen Sanchez was questioned by Penny’s lawyer about whether Neely’s erratic behavior scared her, she started to softly cry.
Sanchez admitted she was relieved when Penny brought Neely down to the ground. But she also said that it looked like Penny was holding Neely too tightly and that it “kind of” looked like he was trying to hurt the disturbed man.
During Sanchez’ testimony of the chokehold, one woman at the back burst into tears and left the courtroom. It was not immediately known who she was.
Sanchez testified that she was relieved when Penny stepped in to hold Neely down. Grabriella Bass for the nypostThe defense tried to confront Sanchez with a contradiction from her grand jury testimony where she said Penny wasn’t squeezing Neely’s neck, but was trying to protect people on the train.
Sanchez’ video is one of several — filmed by bystanders or taken from officers’ body worn cameras — that jurors have been shown over the course of the three days of testimony so far showing either the moments during Penny’s chokehold of Neely or the aftermath of it.
Sanchez was the 11th witness, after several law enforcement witnesses testified Friday and several more train passenger witnesses testified Monday.
Caedryn Schrunk — another witness who was on the train during the fatal chokehold — took the witness stand after Sanchez, testifying she thought she was going to die after hearing Neely’s “satanic” rant.
Schrunk, a senior brand manager at Nike, was on the train to meet a coworker for coffee when Neely, who had “visibly soiled sweatpants,” started saying “‘I don’t care if I die. Kill me, lock me up,'” she recounted.
“There was a moment where I truly thought I was going to die,” she said, adding that she was relieved when Penny intervened.
“In that moment when Mr. Penny took him down, I did have a sense of relief that the threat was gone,” Schrunk said as she was questioned by Penny’s defense lawyer.
“If [Neely] would have gotten up, who knows what he would have done?” she said.
At one point when Schrunk mentioned seeing a mother shielding her baby, audible murmurs came from a section of the courtroom gallery filled with Neely supporters.
After a short morning break, Justice Maxwell Wiley reminded people attending the trial to “do their best to not visibly react or audibly react” when the jury is in the courtroom.
The third witness Thursday was Johnny Grima, a former homeless man who described walking up to where Penny and Neely were after the subway car stopped.
Grima said he saw Penny release Neely from the chokehold and then interjected to say that Neely should be put on his side so he doesn’t choke.
“He finally did let him go,” Grima said. “Neely fell nimbly to the ground.”
Then when Grima ran a small trickle of water over Neely’s forehead to try to wake him up, Penny told him to stop, Grima said, noting the instruction rubbed him the wrong way.
“I already felt some way about [Penny]. I didn’t like him,” Grima said. “It’s something like you know when you have, like an abuser abusing someone and they’re not trying to let anyone near the abused?”
“The guy who’s choking him out won’t let anyone near? That’s weird. That’s wrong,” Grima said.
Three NYPD officers also testified, two of them about various 911 calls that came in about the May 1, 2023 encounter at the Broadway-Lafayette station.
Caedryn Schrunk testified that she thought she was going to die during Neely’s rant. NYC CourtsThe bodycam footage of the third Officer Isatou Ceesay, was played in court as he testified, showing his interaction with Penny, 26, that day.
Neely, a 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator with a history of mental health problems and drug abuse “came on the train, he was throwing s–t. He said he was ready to die, to go to prison for life,” Ceesay recalled Penny telling him.
“Yeah, he was just on the ground, he was trying to roll up, I had him pretty good. I was in the Marine Corp,” Penny said.
Penny’s defense attorney Thomas Kenniff, after jurors were sent home for the day, accused prosecutors of trying to paint his client as a “white vigilante,” as he asked the judge for a mistrial, which was denied.
Protesters calling for “justice” for Neely outside of Manhattan Criminal Court on Nov. 7, 2024. Gabriella Bass for the NYPostKenniff claimed prosecutors’ “incendiary opening” remarks combined with witness testimony meant this client wasn’t getting a fair trial.
He noted one witness called Penny a “white man” and another called him a “murderer” — which prosecutors shouldn’t have allowed.
Penny’s lawyers have maintained that their client sprang into action to protect riders and that he shouldn’t be held criminally responsible.
Before trial kicked off for the day Thursday, a group of roughly a dozen protesters called for Penny’s conviction.
“Stop calling him a damn Marine! He’s a cold-blooded killer,” one man holding a bullhorn yelled about Penny.
Penny faces up to 15 years behind bars if convicted at trial, which is expected to last up to six weeks.
Outside court after, Neely’s uncle, Christopher Neely said prosecutors were “doing a lovely job” and he said “the truth will always come out.”
“I’m looking forward to justice for Jordan,” he said.







