Through the rain drops, the streets around Jamaica’s Greater Allen AME Cathedral were lined with officers Wednesday afternoon who gathered to mourn the loss of P.O. Randolph Holder.
The former Far Rockaway resident, who resided in Mill Basin at the time of his death, was shot in the head while pursuing a suspect on duty in Harlem on Oct. 21. Holder was the fourth NYPD officer murdered in the line of duty in the last 11 months.
The slain officer’s sacrifice was not lost on Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton in their eulogies Wednesday. They hailed him as a model police officer, dedicated to the people he served during his five years on the force and embodying the NYPD’s core values.
“This was a man who lived life so fully and gave so much to so many,” de Blasio said. “It was not about himself. Officer Randolph Holder was dedicated to others and his family and to all the people of his city and was dedicated to making a difference in their lives.”
Bratton posthumously promoted Holder — who wore badge number 13340 at the time of his death — to detective first grade and assigned him shield number 9657, the same number that Holder’s father and grandfather wore while serving as police officers in his native Guyana.
“In [Holder’s] five years at Public Service Area 5, he built a mental database” of the area he patrolled, the commissioner said, “the good folks, the bad guys, the kids teetering on the edge between them. He died as a warrior fighting against the bad.”
“There were no complaints against him, no disciplinary charges,” Bratton added. “He had courage, he had compassion, and this job was certainly his calling.”
The commissioner and mayor also praised Holder’s partner, P.O. Omar Wallace, who assisted Holder and radioed in the description of the shooter that eventually led to the suspect’s arrest. The alleged shooter — Tyrone Howard — remains locked up on first-degree murder charges, and the murder weapon was found Sunday by NYPD scuba divers in the East River close to the shooting location.
De Blasio said that Holder’s death was not in vain, and he sounded the call for changes made to prevent further violence against police officers and the city as a whole.
“We have changes to make so we don’t lose any more good men and women like Officer Holder. In our nation, changes must be made to keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” De Blasio said, gaining the applause of those in attendance. “And here we must make sure that those aiming to harm others are simply not allowed to walk our streets.”
