{"id":305752,"date":"2026-07-26T01:19:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305752\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:19:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:19:54","slug":"first-nypd-officer-charged-under-george-floyd-inspired-chokehold-law-set-to-stand-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305752\/","title":{"rendered":"First NYPD officer charged under George Floyd-inspired chokehold law set to stand trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bronx jury will soon decide whether an NYPD officer accused of choking a man until he lost consciousness violated a local law<\/a> passed in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s<\/a> murder six years ago.<\/p>\n

Jury selection is underway in the trial of Officer Omar Habib, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing, assault and using an unlawful method of restraint.<\/p>\n

Habib is the first officer to be prosecuted under a local law passed by the City Council that bars the use of certain restraints that can restrict someone\u2019s ability to breathe.<\/p>\n

The measure was among a raft of police and criminal justice reforms<\/a> enacted across New York state and across the country after Floyd\u2019s killing on May 25, 2020. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Habib\u2019s trial serves as a test case for the local law, which faced legal challenges from police unions but was ultimately upheld by the state\u2019s highest court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most difficult and thorny problems in policing that can be imagined,\u201d said Steven Wasserman, an adjunct associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n

Habib\u2019s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

On July 29, 2023, Habib responded to a call at a catering hall on Eastchester Road in the Bronx about an intoxicated man who had gotten into a fight, according to the Bronx district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

At a pretrial hearing last year, prosecutors played body-worn camera footage<\/a> in which the man \u2014 whose name has not been publicized \u2014 could be heard asking why he was being arrested and refusing to be handcuffed. The footage shows Habib and other officers trying to arrest him.<\/p>\n

Exactly what happened next was unclear in the footage. According to prosecutors, Habib put the man in a chokehold so tight that he momentarily lost consciousness.<\/p>\n

As the man lay on the floor, prosecutors said Habib told him to get up. The man could be heard in the video accusing Habib of choking him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t choke. Nobody choked you, bro,\u201d Habib said, according to a transcript of the video that prosecutors filed in the case. \u201cYou\u2019re awake right, your [sic] breathing?”<\/p>\n

The camera continued to record as Habib left the scene in his police car. Once alone in his police vehicle, he could be heard breathing loudly and speaking to himself, according to the footage shown in court last.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019d you do, bro?\u201d Habib could be heard asking himself. Prosecutors said he also uttered, \u201cI\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habib\u2019s defense attorney asked a judge not to let jurors see the video, but the judge ruled that the footage can be used at trial.<\/p>\n

Test case for post-George Floyd law<\/p>\n

The 2020 city law prohibits the use of restraints that restrict the flow of air or blood by compressing someone\u2019s windpipe or carotid artery. It\u2019s a misdemeanor charge with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.<\/p>\n

The most serious charge Habib faces is second-degree strangulation, a class D felony that carries a seven-year maximum sentence.<\/p>\n

Wasserman, a former public defender, said charging an officer with the 2020 chokehold law could deter other officers from using excessive force.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is important that there be a law against placing somebody\u2019s life at risk when you\u2019re arresting them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Wasserman said it is \u201cextremely difficult\u201d to draw the line between legal and illegal conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is whether it\u2019s going to have a daunting effect on legitimate and restrained arrests,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve really got hope that that is not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queens DA\u2019s office charged an officer<\/a> with violating a similar law that limited the use of police chokeholds<\/a> on the state level in June 2020, just days after that measure took effect. But a grand jury declined to indict<\/a> the officer.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island DA\u2019s offices said their prosecutors had not pursued any cases with the city\u2019s 2020 chokehold law so far.<\/p>\n

Habib is currently assigned to a unit that monitors surveillance footage of public housing, a common assignment for officers accused of misconduct.<\/p>\n

Since joining the department in 2007, he has faced seven civilian complaints. Investigators substantiated five of them, according to records from the Civilian Complaint Review Board.<\/p>\n

The officer lost 35 vacation days and was suspended five days for using excessive physical force in 2009. The department placed Habib on dismissal probation for a year after investigators found that he used excessive force again and placed someone in a chokehold in 2017.<\/p>\n

While chokeholds became illegal more recently, they have long been banned under NYPD policy<\/a>. The 2017 incident was caught on camera<\/a> and resulted in a $744,000 settlement, according to city records.<\/p>\n

Habib also forfeited five vacation days for sexual harassment and discourtesy in a 2022 incident, according to police watchdog records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bronx jury will soon decide whether an NYPD officer accused of choking a man until he lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-305752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}