A man who aided Daniel Penny while he restrained Jordan Neely in a lethal chokehold aboard a subway car in May 2023 recalled telling the former U.S. Marine he could safely release his grip from Neely’s neck in trial testimony on Tuesday.

Jordan Neely was killed aboard an NYC subway train in May 2023 by a white marine who calls himself trying to play hero. BOSSIP reported extensively on the incident in which that white man, Daniel Penny, applied a chokehold for so long that Neely eventually stopped breathing and died in front of a train car of commuters.

Done right, the maneuver should knock a person out without killing them, according to a Marines combat instructor who trained Penny. But held too long, the technique can restrict the flow of blood