Within a day of voluntarily turning himself in to New York City authorities, Daniel Penny — the man charged with accidentally killing a homeless Michael Jackson impersonator, Jordan Neely — has raised more than $800,000 for his legal defense fund. 

According to a fundraising page set up on GiveSendGo by what appears to be his legal team, Mr. Penny’s legal defense fund raised more than $474,000 as of Friday evening. By Saturday morning, the page reported upward of $800,000 in donations from more than 17,000 individuals.

GiveSendGo describes itself as the “#1 Free Christian Fundraising Site.” The page describes Mr. Penny as “a twenty-four-year-old college student and decorated Marine veteran, facing a criminal investigation stemming from him protecting individuals on a NYC subway train from an assailant who later died.”

It further states that the funds raised will be used to pay “legal fees incurred from any criminal charges filed and any future civil lawsuits that may arise,” and adds that any money donated that exceeds the costs of “Mr. Penny’s legal defense will be donated to a mental health advocacy program in New York City.”

Donated money will be “sent to and managed by the law offices of Raiser & Kenniff, P.C.,” the GiveSendGo page says. One of Mr. Penny’s lawyers, Thomas Kenniff, was the Republican candidate in the race for Manhattan district attorney in 2021, losing to Democrat Alvin Bragg.

Mr. Penny was charged with manslaughter in the second degree on Thursday and turned himself in to authorities on Friday according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He did not enter a plea and was freed pending trial, the Associated Press reported.

The decision to charge Mr. Penny follows an uproar from homeless advocates and liberal politicians including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who cried “murder” and demanded he be held accountable. Mr. Penny’s attorney and supporters say he was trying to keep other subway riders safe after Neely exhibited belligerent behavior, and that he did not intend to cause Neely’s death.

Under New York criminal law, manslaughter in the second degree is defined as recklessly, even if unintentionally, killing another person. A conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years and substantial fines. 

Mr. Penny — with help from other subway passengers — subdued Neely after reportedly feeling threatened by his erratic behavior. They also said Neely threatened physical harm to subway passengers and said he was not afraid to return to prison should he hurt someone. Neely, a well-known Michael Jackson impersonator who was mentally ill, had a long rap sheet, including arrests for drug possession, assault, and other crimes. 

In a letter sent day’s after Neely’s death, Mr. Penny’s lawyers said in a public letter that he “never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”

Mr. Kenniff said Mr. Penny is handling the fallout from the incident with the “integrity and honor that is characteristic of who he is and characteristic of his honorable service in the United States Marine Corps.”

Since Neely’s death on May 1, Black Lives Matter activists and politicians have led protests in the street and called for murder charges to be brought against Mr. Penny. 

“Jordan Neely was murdered,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter. “But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting.”

The image of Mr. Penny, a white man, defending himself on public transit raised the specter of another so-called vigilante from New York City’s history. Bernhard Goetz was charged with attempted murder, assault, and other crimes after shooting four Black teenagers on the city subways during the crime wave of the mid-1980s. Goetz became an icon of sorts to New Yorkers who felt frustrated with wanton crime in public, and was vilified as a white vigilante who unnecessarily used violence. 

Despite the boost in police presence, crime on the city’s transit system rose by 30 percent in 2022 compared to a year earlier, outpacing a 22 percent citywide surge. The increase is despite ridership levels that are running below pre-Covid pandemic levels. The city is currently spending an additional $20 million a month on overtime to fund an extra 1,200 cops on the subways on top of the 2,600 already assigned to the system.

New York City has also been trying, with limited success, to remove homeless people from the subway system and force them into shelters.