Witnesses in the Daniel Penny trial have described the intense fear they experienced when an unhinged homeless man, Jordan Neely, entered the uptown F train car, snarling and threatening passengers.
One teenager testified that she was so scared she thought she might faint.
An older woman was terrified, and a 29-year-old man admitted to being pretty terrified. They all stated that they had never felt such acute panic while riding the train before.
However, on Tuesday, one witness was visibly frightened to be in the courtroom, with protesters outside and Neely supporters inside.
Eric Gonzalez, who helped restrain Neely’s arms, testified that fear of losing his freedom initially led him to fabricate parts of his story to investigators.
Gonzalez arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station during the incident and jumped in to help restrain Neely until the police arrived.
After learning about Neely’s death and Penny’s arrest, Gonzalez was afraid of being implicated in a murder charge, causing him to hide and fabricate parts of his story to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Despite the impact on his credibility as a witness, Gonzalez’s efforts to assist Penny were captured on video, showing his struggle with Neely and attempts to help him.
Throughout his testimony, Gonzalez expressed fear of repercussions if his testimony helped Penny go free, highlighting the politically charged nature of the case.
Both Gonzalez and Penny acted instinctively to protect New Yorkers from the chaos and violence in the subway at the time, but now Penny faces nearly two decades behind bars.
The lesson learned from this situation is the perverse and dangerous idea of not getting involved next time.
