Daniel Penny takes in Army-Navy game with Trump, Vance days after acquittal
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(LANDOVER, Md.) — Daniel Penny, the former Marine who was charged but acquitted in killing Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man, in a New York City subway, shared the spotlight with President-elect Donald Trump and his entourage on Saturday at the Army-Navy game in Landover, Maryland.
Penny, who has received praise in conservative circles and jeers from others for his actions in May 2023, was seen chatting with Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who invited the 25-year-old to the game.
He did not speak to the press.
Trump, who attended the same game in 2016 after winning the election, did not make any speeches but saluted during the national anthem and gave a fist pump and wave to a crowd.
In addition to the president and vice-president elect, Penny joined Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense; former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s selection to be director of national intelligence; House Speaker Mike Johnson; incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Pennsylvania Sen.-elect David McCormick at the game.
Penny’s invitation came days after a Manhattan jury acquitted him of criminal charges for the incident on the F train on May 1, 2023. Neely, who was homeless at the time, boarded a subway car at the Second Avenue stop and was described by witnesses as yelling and moving erratically when Penny put Neely in a chokehold, which prosecutors alleged lasted for six minutes, according to officials.
Some of the incident was captured on video.
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely and ruled he died due to compression of the neck.
Neely, a 30-year-old former street performer who would impersonate Michael Jackson, had a history of homelessness and schizophrenia.
He had been convicted of assaulting people at subway stations, according to police. However, passengers on the train the day Neely died said he did not touch anyone during the incident.
However, Neely had expressed a willingness to die or even kill while on the train, according to investigators.
Penny was charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide but received praise from some conservative leaders, right-wing media pundits and others for what they claimed was an act of self-defense.
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance posted on X this week.
Others, however, criticized the former Marine for taking the life of a homeless Black man in need of mental health services.
The Manhattan jury deliberated for 24 hours over five days and was deadlocked on the manslaughter charge, which carried a 15-year prison sentence, forcing the judge to dismiss it. The jury delivered a verdict of not guilty on the negligent homicide charge on Monday.
In an interview with Fox Nation, Penny described himself as being in a “vulnerable” position.
“He was just threatening to kill people,” Penny told host Jeanine Pirro about Neely. “He was threatening to go to jail forever, to go to jail for the rest of his life.”
Penny has been named in a lawsuit by Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, for negligent contact, assault and battery that led to Neely’s death.
“I promised this family justice — we are still going to do that,” Donte Mills, the attorney representing Zachery, said following Penny’s conviction. “The district attorney did a good job, but the jury in this case let us down.”
(BELLVILLE, Texas) — A family in Austin County, Texas, is anxiously waiting for the return of their 3-year-old kangaroo after the marsupial pushed a gate open and hopped a fence.
The 5-foot-tall kangaroo, named Rowdy, was last seen early Wednesday morning on Pyka Road near Interstate 10 in Austin County, according to the kangaroo’s owner.
Local radio DJ Dana Tyson said she saw the kangaroo while heading to work, she told Houston ABC News affiliate KTRK.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think a kangaroo would jump in front of my car,” Tyson told KTRK.
Tyson recorded the kangaroo on camera and said she later found out a nearby resident, Marsha Matus, was missing one.
Matus said she is anxious for Rowdy’s safe return because she knows he is scared.
“He is our baby. He is not your stereotypical kangaroo. He is our pet,” Matus told KTRK.
Rowdy is one of three kangaroos owned by Matus, she said. After Rowdy got out of the pen, she said he jumped the perimeter fence and ran off. Daphne, another pet kangaroo, only got as far as the yard. And Rocky, the youngest kangaroo, who is still a baby, remained inside the house.
Matus said she loves her kangaroos and she even has kangaroo signs, yard art and a personalized license plate that reads “Roo Mom.”
“They’re unique,” she said. “I’m worried to death.”
On Thursday night, Matus told KTRK a stranger even drove down to help Matus search for Rowdy using his drone that is equipped with thermal imaging. Matus and her husband also used their drone to try and find Rowdy.
In a post on Facebook, Matus says Rowdy spends his days laying down and resting because kangaroos are nocturnal. She urges that if anyone sees him that they call the Austin County Sheriff’s Office.
“Please if you spot him anywhere you can contact myself, Austin Co Sheriff’s office or DPS,” Matus posted on Facebook. “He will not go to anyone, he will not harm anyone or anyone’s pets. He knows my voice and will come to me.”
Matus hopes Rowdy is safe and that he can make it back home.
“I just hope he’s safe because I know he’s scared. I just want him home.”
ABC News reached out to the Austin County Sheriff’s Office for comment and did not receive a response.
(NEW YORK) — A University of Pennsylvania graduate has been charged with murder in the targeted attack of Brian Thompson, the CEO of major insurance group UnitedHealthcare who was fatally shot outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel ahead of an investor conference, according to the NYPD.
Luigi Mangione was charged in the fatal shooting after he was arrested Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an individual at a McDonald’s recognized him from the wildly circulated images of the suspect sought in the shooting.
Mangione faces charges in New York and Pennsylvania
Mangione faces second-degree murder, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon charges in New York, according to according to an online court docket.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office confirmed the charges.
The forged instrument is the fake NJ driver’s license he allegedly used to check into the hostel on the Upper West Side.
Mangione remains in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections pending his extradition to New York.
Mangione, 26, was initially identified as a “strong” person of interest in the shooting death after he was apprehended at the McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a press briefing in New York on Monday.
Mangione was eating at the McDonald’s Monday morning when an individual thought he looked suspiciously like the shooting suspect and alerted an employee, who called police, authorities said.
He was carrying a firearm and suppressor “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during the press briefing earlier Monday. The gun “may have been made on a 3D printer,” police said.
He also had “multiple fraudulent IDs,” including a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID the suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident, Tisch said. He was carrying a U.S. passport that identified him as Luigi Mangione, police said.
Police also recovered clothing, including a mask consistent with those worn by the wanted individual, as well as a three-page “handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” she said.
He was in possession of a ghost gun capable of firing a 9mm round and will face gun charges in Altoona, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters during the briefing earlier Monday.
He has been charged in Pennsylvania with five crimes, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing “instruments of crime,” according to a criminal complaint.
The charging document alleges that Mangione lied about his identity to police and carried the ghost gun without a license.
When Altoona police asked him if he had ever been to New York City, Mangione started shaking, according to the charging document. He didn’t answer the question directly, police said.
Police said they are working to develop a full sense of his timeline in Pennsylvania and how long he has been in Altoona.
The NYPD sent detectives to Altoona to interview him and are going through the recovered writings and his social media, police said.
“It does seem that he had some ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said.
A Goodreads account that appears to belong to Mangione left a four-star review on Ted Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future” — more commonly known as the “Unabomber manifesto” — and described Kaczynski as “a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy Luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”
As investigators sift through Luigi Mangione’s online activity, they are examining multiple social media posts that suggest he may have suffered a major back injury including a photo of an x-ray of a spine posted on X and at least two books about back injuries on his Goodreads profile.
A source confirmed to ABC News that the Goodreads account is part of the law enforcement investigation.
Mangione has ties to San Francisco and his last known address was in Honolulu, Kenny said. In November 2023, Mangione was arrested in Honolulu for trespassing in a Hawaii State Park, court records show. He pleaded no contest and was ordered to pay a $100 fine.
He has no prior arrest history in New York, Kenny said.
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, Kenny said.
Following his arrest on Monday, the Mangione family released a statement saying, “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest.”
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved,” Maryland Republican Delegate Nino Mangione, who represents parts of Baltimore County, wrote on X on behalf of the family.
Luigi is a 2016 graduate of the Gilman School, a private high school in Baltimore, where he was the valedictorian of his graduating class, according to the school’s website. The school said in a statement that Mangione’s “suspected involvement in this case is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation.”
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected. Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating our students,” the statement continued.
Mangione is a May 2020 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, according to a school spokesperson. He studied computer science and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the Ivy League institution.
Following his graduation, Mangione worked as a data engineer at online car marketplace TrueCar, Inc. beginning in November 2020, according to a LinkedIn account that appears to belong to Mangione.
A representative for TrueCar said that Mangione stopped working for TrueCar in 2023.
A classmate who graduated from Gilman with Mangione, told ABC News that “he is the last person I expected to be involved in something like this.”
“He was an incredibly intelligent, humble and kind person,” the classmate said. “He seemed like a very bright guy with a bright future.”
About six months ago, the classmate said he was notified by other classmates that Mangione’s family was “inquiring about his whereabouts.”
“I didn’t hear anything about him until today when all the news dropped,” they said. “It really sucks for his family, who must be going through it right now.”
The Mangione family released a statement saying, “unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”
New photos of suspect released
Police have said the suspect appeared to be lying in wait outside the Hilton hotel on Wednesday in what they said was a “premeditated” attack. The shooter arrived at the scene about five minutes before Thompson before shooting the victim in the chest around 6:40 a.m., police said. The suspect is believed to have left New York City following the shooting, police said.
NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect being sought in the shooting in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats.
Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.
Backpack contained Monopoly money
Police found a backpack believed to belong to the suspected shooter in Central Park on Friday evening, police sources told ABC News. The backpack contained fake money from the game Monopoly and a Tommy Hilfiger jacket, sources said.
The backpack was found after NYPD deployed an army of officers and drones to conduct a grid search, police sources said earlier.
As of Saturday, three days after the shooting, sources close to the investigation told ABC News the New York Police Department is making progress toward identifying the gunman but, as of now, still has not done so.
On Friday, police said they believed the gunman left New York City following the shooting — ditching his bike on the Upper West Side and taking a taxi to a Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street. Police said they believe he boarded a bus there because they did not see him on video leaving the facility.
Suspect stayed at hostel
The NYPD released on Thursday new photos of the suspect, seen without a mask, while asking for the public’s help in identifying him. The images were taken from a surveillance camera at the HI New York City Hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Police had obtained a warrant to search after coming to believe the suspect stayed there, sources told ABC News.
Police were able to find an image of the suspect without his face mask because he was flirting with the woman who checked him into the hostel, police sources told ABC News.
As he stood at the check-in desk, the sources said the woman asked to see his smile. The suspected shooter obliged, pulling down his mask long enough for the surveillance camera to capture his face.
It appears the suspect shared a room with two other men, according to police sources.
The suspect likely checked into the hostel on Nov. 24, checked out and then checked back in again on Nov. 30, according to sources. It’s not clear when the surveillance image was captured.
The suspected shooter checked into the hostel using a New Jersey license that wasn’t his own, according to police sources. Detectives ran the name and found it did not resemble any known photos of the suspect or other evidence amassed so far, the sources said.
Suspect arrived in NYC 10 days before shooting: Sources
The suspect came to New York City on Nov. 24 on a Greyhound bus, when a surveillance camera at Port Authority Bus Terminal caught his arrival at 9 p.m., law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The inbound bus originated in Atlanta but it was not immediately clear where the suspect boarded. The sources said he was spotted on board in Washington, D.C., so he boarded there or somewhere between D.C. and Atlanta.
Both Greyhound and the parent company of the hostel, Hostelling International USA, said in a statement that they are “fully cooperating with the NYPD” but cannot comment further due to the active investigation.
The 10-day period has been the focus of investigative efforts. Police have collected a lot of video of the suspect all over the city — in the subway, in cabs, in a McDonald’s, according to sources. Each place he paid with cash and he made sure to keep his mask on, according to sources.
Whereabouts day of the shooting
Police have released photos of the suspect in a mask, captured at a Starbucks near the hotel before the shooting, according to New York ABC station WABC. He was described by police as wearing a light brown or cream-colored jacket, a black face mask, black and white sneakers and a “very distinctive” gray backpack.
Sources told ABC News the suspected shooter was also seen on video much earlier, at 5 a.m. the day of the shooting, near the hostel carrying what appears to be an e-bike battery.
New cleared CCTV video shows a man who appears to be the suspect walking west on 55th Street at 6:19 a.m. The video shows him stoop down as he appears to momentarily drop an object on the garbage before continuing to walk.
Writing discovered on shell casings
Detectives later discovered writing on the shell casings found at the scene where Thompson was gunned down, police sources told ABC News.
Detectives were working to determine whether the words were meant as a message from the shooter and a hint at his motive.
Written on the shell casings were the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” according to sources.
Other evidence: cellphone, water bottle, candy wrapper
After the shooting, the suspect fled on foot into an alley, where a phone was recovered, according to Kenny. He then fled on an e-bike and he was last seen riding into Central Park at 6:48 a.m., police said.
Police released photos of the suspect holding a firearm and on a bike.
Detectives have also retrieved a water bottle and candy wrapper from the area where he was apparently waiting, law enforcement sources said. After analysis, NYPD investigators believe the cellphone, candy wrapper and water bottle are linked to the shooter, police sources said.
Investigators believe they were able to score DNA samples from several pieces of the evidence, law enforcement sources told ABC News on Friday. The samples are currently at the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be run through databases for a possible match, the sources said. That process could take a couple days.
At the same time, NYPD detectives are working with the U.S. Marshals Service to try and track down the shooter along with the FBI, which has the most sophisticated technology for retrieving usable data from cellphones, sources said.
Professional killer appears unlikely
The victim’s hotel room has already been accessed by investigators, whose top priority is determining Thompson’s most recent conversations and movements, sources said.
The working theory among detectives right now is that the shooting was carried out by someone who is not a professional killer because too many “mistakes” were made, sources said. Hitmen typically don’t carry cell phones to their hits and the shots were fired from a distance that would be considered “too far” away from the victim, the sources said.
At this point, detectives are trying to determine whether Thompson was targeted because of some type of personal conflict or as a result of his work as an insurance executive, sources said. The killer apparently had some knowledge of Thompson’s schedule on Wednesday and the fact that he would be arriving at the Hilton well before the company meeting was to begin, the sources said.
Police are interviewing Thompson’s colleagues and family about any potential specific threats, Kenny said.
What we know about the victim
Thompson, 50, was in New York City for the UnitedHealthcare investors conference, which was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. The conference was being held at the Hilton outside of which he was shot, but he was not staying there, police said.
UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the world, said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson.”
“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the company said. “We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time. Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and all who were close to him.”
This story has been updated.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Madison Burinsky, Kate Holland, Chris Looft and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office are expected to rest their case Monday against Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the chokehold death of a homeless man aboard a New York City subway car.
Defense attorneys will finish their cross-examination of the medical examiner, Dr. Cynthia Harris, who concluded “there are no alternative reasonable explanations” for Jordan Neely’s death other than Penny’s chokehold.
She is expected to be the last witness for the prosecution, which argued Penny’s chokehold became reckless when he held on too long, beyond the point when Neely represented any kind of threat to subway riders.
Jurors saw a video of Penny demonstrating the chokehold during an interview inside a police precinct.
“He had his back turned to me and I got him in a hold, got him to the ground, and he’s still squirming around and going crazy,” Penny is heard saying.
The defense is expected to shift the focus of the case from Penny to Neely, who had prior arrests, a history of mental illness and drugs in his system.
