A New York City Police Department officer was convicted Thursday of strangulation and using an illegal chokehold, a landmark verdict that makes him the first NYPD officer found guilty under the city’s 2020 chokehold ban, passed in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin.
Omar Habib was found guilty of the misdemeanor created by the New York City law that bars certain police restraint tactics. Jurors also convicted him of second-degree felony strangulation and third-degree misdemeanor assault.
The felony strangulation charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. Bronx Criminal Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Isales ordered Habib to be held without bail following the verdict.
Habib, who had previously been suspended without pay, was fired from the NYPD after the felony conviction. He had served with the department since 2007, and police officials said his termination was mandated by law.
A New York City Police Department officer was found guilty Thursday of strangulation and using a banned chokehold. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The case stemmed from a July 28, 2023, response to a 911 call at a Bronx catering hall, where prosecutors said an intoxicated and disorderly man resisted arrest, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. Habib placed the man in a chokehold that was so forceful it restricted his breathing and blood flow, causing him to lose consciousness, prosecutors said.
During the trial, Habib’s defense attorney argued that the man could have passed out for other reasons, including alcohol consumption combined with not eating enough food.
Before the criminal case, Habib had faced substantiated misconduct complaints involving excessive force and abuse of authority.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated an allegation that Habib used a chokehold in a separate 2017 encounter. Habib was also accused of lying under oath and tampering with evidence in a 2016 gun raid, resulting in several defendants withdrawing their guilty pleas.
Before his arrest, Omar Habib had a history of substantiated misconduct complaints about excessive use of force and abusing his authority. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, Patrick Hendry, denounced Thursday’s verdict.
The officer’s conviction was “further proof of a grim reality: every second police officers spend on this job puts them at risk of criminal prosecution, and pervasive anti-police propaganda has made it incredibly difficult to receive a fair trial,” the police union boss said, according to the New York Daily News.
Habib was charged under a 2020 city law that was passed after Floyd’s murder in May of that year, sparking racial justice protests and a push for police accountability across the country. The New York City measure criminalizes chokeholds and certain forms of pressure on an arrestee’s chest or back that compress the diaphragm while an officer is making or attempting an arrest.
Omar Habib was charged under a 2020 city law that was passed after George Floyd’s murder in May of that year, sparking racial justice protests. (Emilie Richardson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The law was challenged by police unions but was upheld by New York state’s highest court in 2023.
Police use of chokeholds was already prohibited in most cases by NYPD policy when the law was enacted, but officers who used them were almost never prosecuted.
NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo lost his job but faced no criminal charges after a department disciplinary proceeding found that he used a prohibited chokehold on Eric Garner, who died during a 2014 arrest after repeatedly saying he could not breathe, fueling protests over police use of force.
