She said, “Thank you.”
A simple gesture, a short phrase.
What Alecia Gittings said to Danielle Penny on May 1, 2023 had tremendous implications. Perhaps the most important appreciation of the 26-year-old's life came at least from my perspective on the fourth day of Penny's tumultuous manslaughter trial.
Ms. Gittings was on the Uptown F train when Jordan Neely, a homeless man with mental health and substance abuse issues, got into her car and became furious, spitting and threatening her.
She witnessed the events leading up to Penny's arrival in court fighting for her freedom. And in the harrowing chaos of that terrible day, she felt so grateful for the Marine Corps veteran that she even stalked him to tell him.
“I came back to thank Penny,” she testified in a strong yet warm tone.
Because on that train, when Neely got on, Gittings was “too scared to sit down.”
At first she couldn't see him, but she heard his voice. She recalled him exclaiming: I'll kill my mother—-r. I'm ready to die. ”
He then heard Penny pull Neely down and strangle her. Prosecutors say Neely, a troubled former Michael Jackson impersonator with a history of violent crimes, took his own life.
The stylish mother of two told jurors she had been riding the tube for more than 50 years. For half a century, she has continued to suffer “sexual damage.” She said people harass her to her face and “get fed a lot of rhetoric.
“I told them to leave. The others got mad at me. This,” she said of Neely's outburst, was “scary.”
Those words, carefully uttered, echoed throughout the room. Clearly, Gittings is not one to back down. to be threatened. She's not easy. But that day, she needed a hero, a defender. So was the entire subway car.
Her gratitude led to a simple question from Penny. Since she was there, could she talk to the police?
Gittings, who had originally planned to go to the dentist, said, “Of course.”
When defense attorney Thomas Kenniff asked Penny, who faces up to 15 years in prison for second-degree manslaughter, if she had told police what to say, Penny replied, “Never.” answered.
Kenniff asked if it looked like “Danny was choking.” she answered no.
She said Neely resisted until he stopped resisting. She said he did not appear to be unconscious. “He seemed rather spent.” When she put him on the stretcher, she “could see him moving a little.”
Another witness, Dan Couvereur, said he was “terrified” that day, but Neely did not easily submit to Penny's restraints.
“No, it was very difficult. I didn't think so. [Penny] “I was in control,” he said.
Another straphanger, Lori Citro, recalled barricading her 5-year-old son in the back of a stroller. She said Neely was lunging at people “screaming in their faces.”
Citro and Couvereur testified that they did not hear Neely gasp or say he couldn't breathe. Both said they were shocked to learn of Neely's death.
But in New York City, where violent lunatics are given free rein, those brave enough to become helpers should not be prosecuted.
they should be appreciated. Just like Alasia Gittings did that day.
