The New York subway passenger accused of death of a homeless man by chokehold is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran discharged from service in 2021.

Daniel J. Penny, 24, has been identified by authorities as the man who allegedly choked Jordan Neely after what police said was an altercation Monday on a northbound F train, according to two law enforcement officials who knew with the progress of the investigation.

Neely, 30, was unconscious when police arrived at the Broadway and East Houston Street subway stations and he was pronounced dead in a hospital, NYPD said.

He died from “neck compression (chokehold)” and it was a homicide, the city medical examiner said. Penny was taken into custody on Monday, questioned by police and released. No charges have been brought against him.

Legislators and others have asked why he has not been held by law enforcement for longer.

On Friday, two people familiar with the matter said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to present the case to a grand jury to consider possible charges. It is not clear when charges could be filed or when the case will be closed without prosecution.

Who is Daniel Penny?

The incident, partially filmed on mobile phone video, has sparked a national debate, with people condemning self-defense and some politicians demanding that authorities do more to address homelessness, mental health and subway violence. Lawyers for his family said that Neely, a subway busker who performed dance routines dressed as Michael Jackson, was suffering from a mental illness.

Penny graduated from West Islip High School in Long Island, New York, in 2016, a county spokesperson said Friday, without providing further details.

He served in the Marines from June 2017 to June 2021 with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines and 2nd Marine Division, a spokesman said. He rose to the rank of sergeant and his last assignment was at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Penny was awarded two Marine Service Ribbons and five medals, including the Marine Good Conduct Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Medal.

A Marine Corps spokesman said in a statement that the service is aware of what happened on the train and will “cooperate with the agencies investigating this incident if requested.”

But he added that the Marines could not confirm the involvement of a former soldier in the incident, saying that he “simply confirms that the person with the name you provided us served in the Marine Corps.”

After the army, Penny went to college but dropped out because he felt “completely unfulfilled” and traveled around Central America instead, according to his profile on Harri, a hospitality industry recruitment and management platform. He was looking for a job as a bartender in Manhattan, the profile says.

Penny, his family and their attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Multiple 911 calls

A police spokesman said the officers were called to the station after they received a call to 911 about the fight.

“Further investigation revealed that a 30-year-old man was involved in a verbal altercation with a 24-year-old man that escalated into a physical altercation,” the spokesperson said in a phone call earlier this week. “During a physical struggle between two men, a 30-year-old man collapsed.”

Two sources familiar with the matter say there were at least five 911 calls related to the incident, including initial reports of a homeless man who was seen by some as threatening because of his manner and loudness.

Juan Alberto Vasquez was on the train and partially filmed the fight on his cell phone. The widely circulated video does not show what happened before the chokehold.

Hey said NBC New York that Neely got on the train and “began to make a somewhat aggressive speech, saying that he was hungry, he was thirsty, that he didn’t care about anything, that he didn’t care if he went to jail, that he didn’t care that he was getting a big life sentence term”.

Some witnesses stated that Neely allegedly acted very aggressively towards other riders and threatened to harm them, the news station reported. Vasquez said Neely was held in a choke position for about 15 minutes.

The law firm hired by Neely’s family said he suffered from a mental illness “which began at age 14, when he survived the brutal murder of his mother.”

His mother, Christine Neely, was killed in 2007, stuffed into a suitcase and left on New York’s Henry Hudson Boulevard. It is reported by NJ.com.. Her boyfriend, Sean Southerland, was convicted in a trial in which Neely, then 18, was being tested. He told the court that he tried to say goodbye to his mother before school on April 4, 2007, but Southerland refused to let him enter the bedroom. . Later that day, Neely said that Southerland packed up and left. Southerland was sentenced to 30 years in prison.