Investigators appear to have identified one of the two men seen on video helping ex-Marine Daniel Penny restrain Jordan Neely during the subway confrontation earlier this month that left the homeless man dead, law enforcement sources told The Post Thursday.
The sources said authorities have been scouring surveillance footage as part of their efforts to track down the men: One who was recorded trying to tie up Neely’s flailing arms, and the other who stood to the side and put pressure on Neely’s shoulder.
It was not known which of the two investigators believed they had picked out. Sources cautioned cops had yet to speak to the person they identified.
The identity of the two men has remained a mystery since they were captured on the shocking video a bystander shot of the May 1 confrontation, which began after Neely, 30, allegedly began yelling at other straphangers and throwing trash.
Penny, a 24-year-old former Marine, seized Neely around the neck and dropped to the floor as the second and third man tried to restrain him further.
After a lengthy struggle, one of the men pinned Neely’s left arm to the floor of the F Train, which was in lower Manhattan at that point.
The city medical examiner has ruled Neely’s death a homicide, noting he died due to “compression of neck (chokehold).”
Penny has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and is free on $100,000 bail. It is not clear if authorities will look to charge the other two men for their conduct.
Now that Penny has been charged, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has six months to secure a grand jury indictment and bring the case to trial, according to Penny’s attorney, Steven M. Raiser.
Raiser also told The Post that he does not think the other two men should be charged.
“They did nothing wrong other than attempt to restrain a fellow passenger that was trying to hurt people on that train,” Raiser said. “It would seem beyond comprehension to charge them for acting in self-defense.”
By Thursday, Penny’s legal defense fund on the website GiveSendGo had raised more than $2.6 million. This sum included donations from musician Kid Rock and Vivek Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential candidate.
Raiser said he thinks Penny’s case has “struck a chord” with people across the country, which has led to the outpouring of support.
In contrast, a GoFundMe account established by Jordan’s aunt, Carolyn Neely, has raised just under $148,000.
Christopher Neely, Jordan’s uncle, said this week that the flood of money into Penny’s defense account doesn’t surprise him.
“We’ve known there would be support for [Penny] when he got free without charges,” Neely told The Post Wednesday.
“People who donated have been saying in the comments, ‘Penny’s just a baby,’ or ‘My kid’s a Marine too,” Neely said. “But whether he’s young or a Marine doesn’t change that what he did was wrong … No matter how much money he raises, he’s still going to jail.”
“People need to know killing is not justified, regardless of the campaign behind you or propaganda being spread in your defense,” Neely continued.
Neely’s family has said Penny should be tried for murder.
But Penny’s attorneys have said he didn’t intend to kill Neely when he choked him — he was merely trying to defend himself and fellow straphangers from a threatening homeless man, who had a long history of mental illness and numerous prior arrests.
“Danny believed his fellow passengers’ lives were in danger,” Raiser told The Post on Thursday.
“We know this was a reasonable belief because passengers such as this continue to come forward saying Danny was right,” he continued.
“They were too scared to act and had nowhere to run. Danny overcame that same fear and put his own life in danger to keep everyone on that train safe.”
Additional reporting by Jack Morphet