An NYPD officer’s recorded self-talk from a patrol car after an alleged chokehold can be played for jurors. Officer Omar Habib's body camera captured him asking, "What'd you do, bro?" and saying, "I'm done." Prosecutors allege Habib placed a man in a chokehold in July 2023 that made the man unable to breathe and temporarily lose consciousness. Habib was indicted under a 2020 Bronx law banning chokeholds and had prior NYPD discipline for a chokehold. Habib pleaded not guilty to strangulation, obstruction of breathing, assault, and unlawful restraint; the top charge carries up to seven years. Footage shows officers struggling to restrain the intoxicated man.
A Bronx judge has ruled that recorded statements an NYPD officer made to himself while alone in his patrol car moments after prosecutors say he choked a man unconscious can be played for jurors at his criminal trial. Officer Omar Habib's body camera was still recording as he drove away from the scene in July 2023. On it, he can be heard asking himself "What'd you do, bro?" and uttering, "I'm done," according to prosecutors and footage played in court on Tuesday.
Last year, the Bronx district attorney's office accused Habib of placing a man in a chokehold that was so tight he couldn't breathe and temporarily lost consciousness. Habib was the first Bronx officer to be indicted under a 2020 local law that banned police chokeholds and other restraints that can impede breathing, according to the DA's office. Years earlier, records show, the NYPD disciplined him for putting someone else in a chokehold.
Habib pleaded not guilty in August 2024 to charges of strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, assault, and using an unlawful method of restraint. If convicted of the most serious charge, he could face up to seven years in prison. At a hearing Tuesday morning, prosecutors played Habib's body camera footage from the night that led to his arrest.
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