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New York police officer shot dead while responding to reports of gunfire | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A New York City police officer was shot and killed on Tuesday night while responding to reports of gunfire in East Harlem. | |
The officer, identified as Randolph Holder, was a 33-year-old native of Guyana who immigrated to the US before joining the NYPD. Mayor Bill de Blasio described Holder as “an immigrant who wanted to give back to his city and his country, and who had an exemplary record as a police officer, who did everything the right way”. | |
According to police, at 8.30pm, Holder and his fellow officers responded to reports of gun shots at East 102nd Street and First Avenue. A male victim told responding officers that his bike had been stolen at gunpoint. Witnesses said that several men had fled, heading north on FDR Drive. | |
Holder, a member of the Housing Bureau police service Area 5, confronted the suspect as he rode a bicycle northbound at East 120th Street along FDR Drive. | |
Shots were exchanged and Holder was hit in the head. He was taken to Harlem hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead at 10.22pm. | |
Following the altercation, the suspect fled and was apprehended at 124th Street. He was taken to Cornell Medical Center with gunshot wounds in his leg. According to the police commissioner, William Bratton, he will be taken into custody following his release on Wednesday. | |
The police also arrested three other men on Tuesday night at East 111th Street and FDR Drive. They are in custody and being questioned about their involvement. As of Wednesday morning, the FDR Drive was closed between 96th Street and 125th Street for ongoing investigations. | |
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Bratton said that Holder was the fourth New York City police officer “murdered in this city in the last 11 months”. In 2015, 101 police officers have died in the line of duty in the US, with 33 of those deaths caused by gunfire, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. | |
“New York City police officers, every day, go out and carry themselves like superheroes on the street,” said Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. “But the reality is, when we’re attacked we bleed, when we bleed we die, and when we die we cry.” | |
Holder, whose father and grandfather were also police officers in Guyana, was appointed to the department in July 2010. Bratton said he can understand the “bravery” Holden exhibited through not just his actions, but those of his father, who addressed the officers from PSA 5, following Holden’s death. Bratton explained that “as they tried to comfort him, he, in fact, was comforting them”. | |
Holder exhibited his bravery when he “did what every other officer in the NYPD does when the call comes”, according to the police commissioner. | |
“He ran toward danger,” Bratton said. “It was the last time he will respond to that call.” | |
As the ambulance carrying Holden’s body left the hospital early on Wednesday morning, dozens of NYPD officers saluted the vehicle, according to the AP. After its departure, some of the officers embraced. | |