Veteran Marine Daniel Penny is celebrating his recent acquittal for manslaughter inside a historic college football game.
Penny, who was recently acquitted in the subway strangulation death of homeless man Jordan Neely, was with President-elect Trump in a suite at Northwest Maryland Stadium for Saturday's 125th Army-Navy Game. He was joined by Vice President J.D. Vance. Also invited to Trump's suite were Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
A photo of Penny posing alongside Trump and Vance in the suite during the game went viral.
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Multiple social media users praised Penny and hailed the veteran as a hero.
Crypto influencer Tiffany Fung shared the photo and hailed Penny as a hero in a post on X.
“Donald Trump [and] “J.D. Vance knows Daniel Penny is a hero,” Fung wrote.
Conservative X influencer and podcast host Nick Souter called for Penny to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in his post, and dozens of others agreed with Penny in his X answer.
“No wonder Daniel Penny received a hero's welcome from President Trump and J.D. Vance at the Army-Navy game!” Souter wrote. “I sincerely hope that President Trump awards Penny the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., shared the photo with the caption, “Common sense reigns again!”
Author Ashley St. Clair shared the photo with a caption suggesting that Penny is on trial because he is a white man. The incident in which Penny strangled Neely, who is Black, sparked a national conversation about race.
“Gone are the days of vitriolic persecution of white people simply for being white,” St. Clair wrote.
During Penny's trial, prosecutors routinely referred to the veteran as “white.”
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Penny is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for choking Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, on the subway after barging onto the train while shouting death threats on May 1, 2023. Ta.
Witnesses said Neely's threats were scarier than a typical subway riot and were grateful for Penny's intervention.
Neely was long criminal historyhad an active arrest warrant, a history of mental illness, and was dependent on K2, a synthetic marijuana that a pathologist described as a stimulant.
On December 3, 2024, Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
Cheers erupted from Penny's side of the New York City courtroom on December 9th when a jury declared that they had found him not guilty of manslaughter. At the same time, the ruling prompted angry reactions from Neely's side, including her father, Andre Zachary, who was escorted from the courthouse along with several Black Lives Matter leaders.
Penny thanked the jury for their verdict in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
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“I want to hug them. I want to thank them. Yeah, for sure. It takes a lot of courage to stand up for me, especially in this climate in New York City,” he said. “Five” co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro said in a preview during an exclusive interview that aired Wednesday on Fox Nation.
The Marine Corps veteran said he would take action again if he encountered the same situation on the subway where someone was threatening or acting erratically.
“If you didn't do anything in that situation and someone got hurt, you wouldn't be able to survive yourself,” he said. “I'm going to feel guilty for the rest of my life.”
Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court on November 18, 2024 in New York, New York. (Adam Gray, Fox News Digital)
Mr. Vance was one of the first politicians to express support for Mr. Penney following the verdict, saying he extended his initial invitation to the suite to Mr. Penney on Saturday.
“Daniel is a good guy. New York's mob district attorney tried to ruin Daniel's life because he had a backbone,” Vance wrote on X Friday. “I am grateful that he accepted my invitation and I hope he enjoys himself and realizes how much his countrymen admire his courage.”
Penny still faces a lawsuit from Zachery. Penny has accused the 26-year-old of causing her son's death through “negligence, carelessness and recklessness.” Zachery is seeking unspecified damages for assault and battery, according to a copy of the complaint.
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