The mother told jurors she barricaded her 5-year-old son in the back of a stroller because she was afraid of the “belligerent and free-spirited” Jordan Neely.
Study director Lori Citro, a mother of two, was on the F train uptown taking her young son to a therapy appointment when she noticed Neely's “commotion” as she started screaming.
“He was yelling in people's faces,” Citro recalled of Neely, “'No water, no food, no home…I want to go to Rikers, I want to go to jail.'
Citro said Neely began “lunging” in the direction of various people and then demonstrated the movements to jurors.
“He was very volatile and unpredictable,” she said.
“It was very scary,” her mother recalls. “The sounds got louder and louder and I felt more and more threatened. I would describe it as belligerent and unhinged. In fact I put the stroller I had in front of my son and kind of We created a barrier.
Citro acknowledged that Neely did not lunge at her or threaten to kill her, as the attorney for manslaughter suspect Daniel Penny claimed in his opening statement.
Still, when Penny intervened to stop Neely, Citro said, “I was so relieved because I was scared for my son.”
Penny's attorney said he should not be held criminally responsible for Neely's death because he only acted to protect other riders.
