When I wrote about this story last week I suggested that the Marine veteran who put Jordan Neely in a chokehold that resulted in his death might wind up being charged with second-degree manslaughter. Today we’re learning that’s exactly what is going to happen.

Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old Marine veteran who choked and killed a homeless man on the subway last week, is expected to be arrested on a second-degree manslaughter charge and to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed Mr. Penny’s expected arrest on the charge in a statement.

“We can confirm that Daniel Penny will be arrested on a charge of manslaughter in the second degree. We cannot provide any additional information until he has been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, which we expect to take place tomorrow,” the statement said.

Second-degree manslaughter doesn’t require that the person’s death be intentional, only that it was the result of behavior that was reckless. As I said before, I don’t think this case is going to be a slam dunk for prosecutors. The jury, or at least someone on the jury, may feel that Daniel Penny was acting in defense of other people on the train.

Jordan Neely has mostly been portrayed as a harmless Michael Jackson impersonator in the media but he also had a history of violence.

USA Today referred to the deceased Mr. Neely as a “beloved subway performer” who hailed from “a whole family of musicians.” The spin from CNN was that he was a “Michael Jackson impersonator,” known for dressing up as the King of Pop and performing unsolicited but charming dance numbers on the train. To a citizen casually observing, the impression might well be that Neely was a harmless jester, killed by a brutish (and possibly racist?) white man for dancing…

Thanks in large part to citizen journalists online, we now know that Jordan Neely had 42 previous arrests, many for subway violence.

At the time of the fatal struggle, he had an active criminal warrant, earned for punching a 67-year-old grandmother, breaking her nose and fracturing her orbital bone. On another occasion, and for God only knows what reason, Neely tried to kidnap a small child, briefly snatching a seven-year-old girl. Almost unbelievably, there exists a decade-old Reddit thread — recently discovered by the street reporter Andy Ngo — that consists of New York taxpayers documenting the subway crimes of Jordan Neely. The title? “Try to stay away from the Michael Jackson impersonator.” Simply put: Neely was seen as a disturbed and dangerous man — because he was.

Neely was a dangerous nutcase and he’d been that way for a really long time. Here’s the Reddit thread about him from nine years ago.

A post on Reddit from nine years ago warns the public about #JordanNeely. The man’s death after being restrained by passengers has ignited BLM rage because one of the passengers involved appears to be white. https://t.co/H2x7htqD8J pic.twitter.com/eHKarkHgj7

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) May 5, 2023

A much more recent comment.

As the death of #JordanNeely has gone viral due to leftist & BLM misinformation, more New Yorkers are speaking out about their experiences with the dangerous man. One person says Neely tried to push them into the train tracks at the Broadway-Lafayette station. Neely had an arrest… pic.twitter.com/PPNTGY4iUo

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) May 6, 2023

On the day Neely was killed, eyewitnesses say he entered the train angry and began shouting about wanting food and something to drink. He didn’t harm anyone but people on the train moved away from him, afraid he might. He also made threats, saying he wasn’t afraid to hurt anyone on the train even if he wound up going to prison for life. That sounds to me like a threat to do serious harm or even to kill someone. If so then Daniel Penny’s decision to restrain him with the help of two other men looks a lot more like communal self-defense.

To be clear, I think it could go either way. Since Neely died, there’s your argument that the restraint was reckless. But the video suggests, at least to me, that Penny believed Neely was alive and expected he would recover after he was released. Even if he’s convicted I would expect a fairly short sentence.

Here’s a news report including a response from Penny’s attorney. Notice this clip presents Neely as the lovable MJ impersonator and makes zero mention of his history of violence.