A New York City Police (NYPD) officer was charged for allegedly using a chokehold that was outlawed after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Omar Habib, 40, was arrested on Thursday and arraigned in Bronx County on second-degree Strangulation second-degree Criminal Obstruction of Breathing or Blood Circulation, third-degree Assault and Unlawful Methods of Restraint, according to a press release from Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.
On July 29, 2023, Habib was on duty when he responded to a call at a catering hall in the Bronx neighborhood of New Rochelle. When a “drunk and disorderly” man refused to be placed under arrest, Habib allegedly put him in a chokehold so tightly that it stopped the man’s breathing and circulation, making him temporarily lose consciousness.
Jacob Z. Weinstein, Habib’s attorney, told Newsweek via email on Friday afternoon that Habib “will be full[y] vindicated of all charges.”
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
The chokehold that Habib used was banned after police officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Floyd’s murder caused a political uproar in America with a series of civil rights protests against police brutality, some of which turned violent. Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder and sentenced in June 2021 to 22 and a half years in prison.
DA Clark said in Thursday’s press release, “The defendant allegedly violated his oath of office by employing a technique to subdue a suspect which is specifically prohibited under New York City law. Police officers must adhere to the law.”
An NYPD spokesperson told Newsweek via email on Friday afternoon that Habib has been suspended without pay.
Habib’s indictment is the first of a police officer in Bronx County under a New York City law that prohibits a person from restraining someone else “in a manner that restricts the flow of air or blood by compressing the windpipe or the carotid arteries on each side of the neck, or sitting, kneeling, or standing on the chest or back in a manner that compresses the diaphragm, in the course of effecting or attempting to effect an arrest.”
The now-suspended officer was released and will be back in court on October 15.
Habib, who joined the NYPD in 2007, has a history of substantiated misconduct complaints about excessive force and abusing his authority, according to the Associated Press.
In 2017, Habib allegedly put a Bronx supportive housing resident in a chokehold for calling him and others “f***ing Keystone Kops,” according to The City, a Bronx newspaper, which cited interviews and Internal Affairs Bureau records.