A New York City Police Department officer was found guilty on Thursday of strangulation and using a prohibited chokehold, marking the first time an NYPD officer was convicted under the city's 2020 chokehold ban, enacted after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin.
Omar Habib was convicted of the misdemeanor established under the law prohibiting certain restraint tactics by police officers. He was also found guilty of second-degree felony strangulation and third-degree misdemeanor assault.
The felony strangulation conviction carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Bronx Criminal Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Isales ordered him held without bail.
Habib, who was earlier suspended without pay, was terminated from the police department following his felony conviction after serving since 2007. The NYPD said his termination was required by law.
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He was responding to a 911 call at a Bronx catering hall on July 28, 2023, when a drunk and disorderly man resisted arrest, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. Prosecutors said Habib put the man in a chokehold so tight that it impeded his breathing and circulation and caused him to lose consciousness.
Habib’s attorney argued during the trial that other factors could have caused the man to pass out, such as drinking without eating enough food.
Before his arrest, Habib had a history of substantiated misconduct complaints about excessive use of force and abusing his 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.
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.
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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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.