{"id":310202,"date":"2026-07-30T22:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/310202\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T22:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:16:13","slug":"bronx-cop-on-trial-for-using-illegal-chokehold-apologized-after-knocking-victim-unconscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/310202\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx cop on trial for using illegal chokehold apologized after knocking victim unconscious"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bronx man testified Thursday that he had no plans to pursue a criminal case against the cop who apologized for\u00a0using an illegal chokehold<\/a> on him \u2014 until he saw the officer\u2019s body-worn camera video and watched as he lost consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe choked me,\u201d Lord Nyamah said of Officer Omar Habib. \u201cHe had me cuffed behind my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe grabbed my neck,\u201d Nyamah said.<\/p>\n

Before seeing the video, Nyamah was fine with moving on with his life, noting that when Habib apologized to him a few minutes after the incident, he told the cop, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. I\u2019m not going to press any charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want you to lose your job,\u201d he remembered telling Habib. \u201cBut (the cop) said, \u2018I\u2019m going to be fired anyway.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SurveillanceSurveillance video shows violent confrontation between police and Dennis Prewitt, during which Prewitt appears to be choked by Officer Omar Habib.<\/p>\n

Habib is the first cop charged in the Bronx under a city law \u2014 passed in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd<\/a> by a Minneapolis cop \u2014 that bars police from using chokeholds or any form of physical restraint that can restrict a suspect\u2019s ability to breathe.<\/p>\n

Police unions challenged the law, but the state\u2019s highest court upheld it in late 2023.<\/p>\n

The criminal charge for using a banned chokehold is a misdemeanor, but Habib was also charged with strangulation, a felony, and could spend up to seven years in prison, officials said.<\/p>\n

The criminal case Habib faces dates back to July 29, 2023, when he and other officers from the 47th Precinct responded to the Eastwood Manor catering hall on Eastchester Road to deal with an unruly patron.<\/p>\n

\"SurveillanceSurveillance video shows violent confrontation between police and Dennis Prewitt, during which Prewitt appears to be choked by Officer Omar Habib.<\/p>\n

Nyamah, then 53, testified that, while at a relative\u2019s birthday party, he confronted an acquaintance who had been bad-mouthing him and put his hands around the man\u2019s neck before others broke up the confrontation. Nyamah said he went to the bathroom and punched a mirror; his hand cut so badly that blood soaked through the shirt he took off to try to stanch the wound.<\/p>\n

While Nyamah was in the back of an ambulance, police showed up, and Habib moved to arrest him.<\/p>\n

Body-worn camera footage doesn\u2019t clearly show what happened, but prosecutors say Habib put Nyamah in a chokehold and squeezed Nyamah\u2019s neck until he passed out,<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Why are you choking me?’\u201d Nyamah testified. \u201cHe said, \u2018No one is choking you.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Officer Omar Habib walks into a courtroom in Bronx Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 29, 2026 in the Bronx. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

During cross-examination, Habib\u2019s defense attorney, Jacob Weinstein, tried to prove that several other factors could have led to Nyamah falling unconscious, including how much blood he lost by punching the mirror and that he had not eaten\u00a0much food before drinking.<\/p>\n

He even got Nyamah to admit that, as a semi-pro boxer in Guyana in his late teens and early 20s, he took several blows to the body and head, some of which knocked him out.<\/p>\n

During his opening remarks on Wednesday, Weinstein said the body-worn camera video, which prosecutors had to slow down and freeze at points to show the alleged chokehold, doesn\u2019t show the whole story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a moment in time, splitting a hair,\u201d he said about the snippet of video. \u201cBut as you all know, life is not a moment in time. It\u2019s clear (Habib) was only doing his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habib is on modified assignment, working without a gun and shield, monitoring NYCHA surveillance cameras as the criminal case against him continues.<\/p>\n

He joined the NYPD in 2007 and is no stranger to controversy. A chokehold allegation made against him in 2017 resulted in a lawsuit the city settled two years ago for $744,000. As a result, Habib lost 30 days\u2019 pay and was placed on dismissal probation for a year.<\/p>\n

According to discipline records, he lost 40 days\u2019 pay after he was accused of using excessive force for punching a handcuffed prisoner in the face in 2009.<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Officer Omar Habib walks into a courtroom in Bronx Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 29, 2026 in the Bronx. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In addition, Habib\u2019s testimony in an otherwise solid Bronx gun case transformed a simple prosecution into a boondoggle, and ultimately led to multiple defendants withdrawing their guilty pleas, officials said.<\/p>\n

Habib, the Daily News reported in 2020, admitted to tampering with evidence during a 2016 raid of a Tinton Ave. apartment, where he placed a seized gun in a box with money on top of it \u2014 even though no money was vouchered \u2014 before police took a picture of the weapon.<\/p>\n

He also admitted a second gun was moved closer to one of the defendants as he lay on the floor handcuffed.<\/p>\n

The criminal case against Habib is expected to continue through next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bronx man testified Thursday that he had no plans to pursue a criminal case against the cop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-310202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region","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\/310202","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=310202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}