- In an interview with The New York Post, Daniel Penny said it was "comical" that he's been accused of racism.
- It was Penny's first public comment since he choked Jordan Neely, a homeless man, to death on a New York subway.
Daniel Penny, who held a homeless man in a chokehold on a New York subway until his death, said the accusations against his character are "a little bit comical" because he loves "all people."
In an exclusive interview with $4, Penny, 24, discussed his identity as a family man, his love of surfing, and his travels around the world. It was his first public comment since his May 1 altercation that left Jordan Neely, 30, dead.
"This had nothing to do with race," Penny, who is white, told the Post about the incident with Neely, who was Black. "I judge a person based on their character. I'm not a white supremacist."
Witnesses said Neely was yelling about being hungry and desperate, and behaving erratically on the subway before Penny placed him in a chokehold for several minutes. While witnesses said Neely's behavior was unnerving, there has yet to be $4 that he $4.
"I mean, it's, it's a little bit comical," Penny told the Post. "Everybody who's ever met me can tell you, I love all people, I love all cultures. You can tell by my past and all my travels and adventures around the world. I was actually planning a road trip through Africa before this happened."
Penny's attorneys said their client, a Marine veteran, $4 and "could not have foreseen" Neely's "untimely death."
Penny told the Post: "I always do what I think is right."
After a medical examiner ruled Neely's death a homicide, the Manhattan district attorney's office charged Penny $4.
While Penny has been $4, others have decried the killing as an example of $4 plaguing the country. The case has sparked $4 in the city and calls for $4.
Penny told the Post he's "a normal guy," not a vigilante, and that the scene in the subway car was unlike "anything I'd experienced before."
"I'm deeply saddened by the loss of life," Penny told the Post. "It's tragic what happened to him. Hopefully, we can change the system that's so desperately failed us."
Attorneys for Neely's family, who have $4, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.