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…