A New York City Police Department officer has been convicted of strangulation and using a prohibited chokehold, the first such conviction under a city law enacted after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Omar Habib was found guilty on Thursday of second-degree felony strangulation, third-degree misdemeanor assault, and a misdemeanor violation of the 2020 chokehold ban.
The felony strangulation conviction carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Bronx Criminal Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Isales ordered Habib held without bail. He was terminated from the police department following his felony conviction, as required by law, after serving since 2007.
Habib was responding to a 911 call on July 28, 2023, at a Bronx catering hall when a reportedly intoxicated and disorderly man resisted arrest. Prosecutors stated that Habib applied a chokehold so restrictive that it impeded the man's breathing and circulation, causing him to lose consciousness. Habib's attorney argued during the trial that other factors, such as the man drinking without adequate food, could have contributed to him passing out.
Prior to this incident, Habib had a record of substantiated misconduct complaints related to excessive force and abuse of authority. The Civilian Complaint Review Board had previously substantiated a claim of chokehold use in a separate 2017 encounter. He also faced accusations of lying under oath and tampering with evidence in connection with a 2016 gun raid, which led to several defendants withdrawing their guilty pleas.
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, criticized the verdict. He stated that the conviction is "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 2020 city law criminalizing chokeholds and certain forms of pressure on an arrestee's chest or back was passed in response to the nationwide protests for racial justice following George Floyd's death. The law prohibits tactics that compress the diaphragm during an arrest. Police unions challenged the law, but it was upheld by New York state's highest court in 2023. While NYPD policy already prohibited chokeholds in most cases, officers using them were rarely prosecuted. For comparison, NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo was fired but faced no criminal charges after a departmental disciplinary proceeding found he used a prohibited chokehold on Eric Garner, who died during a 2014 arrest after repeatedly stating he could not breathe.