Subway rider thanks Daniel Penny for saving riders from Jordan Neely

She said “Thank you.”

A simple gesture, a small phrase.

What Alethea Gittings said to Daniel Penny on May 1, 2023 meant a lot. Probably the most important Thanksgiving of a 26-year-old’s life – at least from my vantage point on Penny’s fourth day. Troubled homicide trial,

Gittings was on that Uptown F train when Jordan Neely, a mentally healthy homeless man substance abuse issuesShe got into his car and became angry while issuing threats.

he saw the events that unfoldedPutting Penny in court while fighting for her freedom. And in the terrifying chaos of that fateful day, she felt gratitude toward the Marine veteran — and even stuck around to tell him.

“I came back to thank Mr. Penny,” she testified, speaking firmly but warmly.

Because on that train, Gittings was “scared” when Neely boarded.

Initially, she couldn’t see him but she could hear him, okay. She recalled him yelling, “I don’t care. I’ll kill a mother–R. I am ready to die.”

Then she heard Penny throw Neely down, put him in a chokehold Prosecutors say what cost a troubled former Michael Jackson impersonator, who had a history of violent crime, his life.

The stylish mother of two told the jury she has been traveling on the Metro for more than 50 years. Over that half century, she was “sexually harassed”. He has been harassed by people coming in front of him, “I am being given all kinds of statements.

“I told them to go away. Others made me angry. It,” he said of Neely’s outburst, “scared me.”

Those carefully spoken words bounced around the room. Clearly, Gittings is not one to back down. Intimidation. That’s not an easy mark. But that day he needed a hero, a savior. The entire subway car did this.

As a result of his thanks, Penny asked a simple question. Since she was there, could she talk to the police?

Gittings, who originally went for a dental appointment, said, “Of course.”

When defense attorney Thomas Kenniff asked if Penny — who now faces up to 15 years in prison on a second-degree murder charge — told him what to say to police, she replied, “Never. No.”

Kenniff asked if it felt like “Danny was squeezing his neck.” He replied no.

She said Neely fought until he no longer fought. He said that he did not seem unconscious. “More like he was spent.” When they placed him on the gurney, she “saw him moving a little.”

Another witness, Dan Couvereur, testified that he was “terrified” that day and that Neely did not easily get hold of Penny.

“No, it was very challenging. I didn’t think (Penny) had control,” he said.

Another straphanger, Lori Citro, was recalled Barricading her 5 year old son Behind his wanderlust. She said Neely was lunging at people, “screaming in their faces.”

Citro and Couvreur testified that they did not hear Neely gasping for breath or saying that he could not breathe. Both said they were shocked to hear the news of Neely’s death.

But in New York City, where violent maniacs are given free rein, brave people who volunteer should not be prosecuted.

They should be thanked. Just like Alathea Gittings did that day.