Ramsey Orta appears in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on July 1, 2015. Orta, who filmed the Eric Garner choke hold video, was arrested for allegedly selling drugs to an undercover officer in New York City’s East Village.

Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News via Getty Images

Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed Eric Garner’s death, said he pleaded guilty in a 2014 Staten Island, N.Y., weapons and drug case Thursday and will likely spend the next four years in prison as part of the plea deal, the New York Daily News reports.


"I'm supposed to be copping out," Orta told the Daily News. "I'm pretty much tired of fighting."

Orta has maintained that since recording the damning footage of a New York City police officer choking Garner to death about two years ago, he has been a target of the New York City Police Department. Orta has been arrested several times since capturing the 2014 incident and, as the Daily News reports, most recently had a domestic violence case dismissed.


Authorities had accused Orta of roughing up and threatening his wife Feb. 13 at their apartment home, the Daily News reports. It was not clear why prosecutors decided to drop the charges, but Orta said that he and his wife were good.

The couple have been living in Las Vegas, and Orta said that he planned to "spend my last couple of months" of freedom with her there.

And Orta said that he will still be keeping his eye peeled for trouble, since he still believes that he's a target for police. He said that someone put rat pesticides in his food at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, and so he will be taking precautions once imprisoned by sticking to packaged goods.

“I’m not going to eat the food that’s being provided," he said. “Hopefully, I can raise enough money.”


Read more at the New York Daily News.