A mother told jurors she was so afraid of “belligerent and unyielding” Jordan Neely that she restrained her 5-year-old son in the back of his stroller.
Lori Citro, a research director and mother of two, was on the Uptown F train taking her young son to a therapy appointment when she witnessed a “commotion” from Neely, who had begun screaming.
“He was yelling in people’s faces,” Citro said, recalling Neely, who yelled, “‘I don’t have water, I don’t have food, I don’t have a home… I’m going to Rikers. I want to go, I want to go to jail.
Neely began “moving” in the directions of different people, Citro said, later demonstrating the movement for jurors.
“It was very irregular and unpredictable,” she said.
“It felt very scary,” the mother recalled. “It was getting louder and louder and it was feeling more and more dangerous. I would describe it as combative and unyielding. “I actually took the stroller that I had and put it in front of my son to create a kind of barrier.”
Citro acknowledged that Neely did not lunge at him or threaten to kill him, as the attorney for murder suspect Daniel Penny had claimed in opening statements.
Still, once Penny intervened to stop Neely, Citro said, “I felt so relieved because I was scared for my son.”
Penny’s lawyers have said he should not be held criminally liable for Neely’s death because he was only acting to protect other riders.
(TagstoTranslate)Metro(T)US News(T)Daniel Penny(T)Deaths(T)Manhattan(T)Manhattan Criminal Court(T)Subway(T)Trial
