Donations are pouring in to the legal fund set up for Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran accused of manslaughter over his role in the death of Jordan Neely on board a New York City subway train.
The fund, set up by Penny’s legal team on the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo, has reached the $1 million mark and is increasing fast.
The fund stood at around $400,000 as of late Friday morning, meaning it more than doubled in 24 hours.
The current fund will be used to pay Penny’s legal fees incurred from any criminal charges filed and any future civil lawsuits that may arise, as well as other expenses related to his defense. Excess funds will be donated to a mental health advocacy program in New York City.
GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding platform. It rose to prominence during the Canadian truckers’ boycott last year, when it defied the Canadian government’s demand to freeze funds destined for the Freedom Convoy, which had blockaded major highways in protest of coronavirus restrictions.
Penny turned himself in to a New York City police station yesterday, where he was arraigned on charges of second degree manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Neely, a homeless man with over 40 prior arrests, had allegedly been screaming threats on the F train in New York City before being wrestled to the floor and placed in a chokehold by Penny and two others. Neely died after losing consciousness during the tussle.
The manslaughter charges against Penny came after intense pressure from leftist activists, including Al Sharpton, as well as the corporate legacy media. Far-left congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even said that Penny should be charged with murder.
As Breitbart News reported, witnesses said Neely had been threatening passengers on the F train prior to Penny’s intervention:
In anonymous comments to the New York Post, a 66-year old female witness to the incident alleged Neely had been threatening passengers prior to Penny’s intervention.
“I hope he [Penny] has a great lawyer, and I’m praying for him. And I pray that he gets treated fairly, I really do,” said the witness.
“He [Neely] said, ‘I don’t care. I’ll take a bullet, I’ll go to jail’ because he would kill people on the train,” recalled the witness. “He said ‘I would kill a motherf***er. I don’t care. I’ll take a bullet. I’ll go to jail.”
In a statement to the press last week, lawyers for Penny said that the Marine veteran acted to defend himself and others aboard the subway train.
“When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived.”
“Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death,” the statement said. “We hope that out of this awful tragedy will come a new commitment by our elected officials to address the mental health crisis on our streets and subways.”
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Ben Von Klemperer via Storyful
class=”a8d-pre”>Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.