By Gabriel Rom
For the fourth time in 11 months men and women in blue gathered to mourn the killing of a New York City police officer.
Outside Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica Wednesday thousands of police officers, some from as far away as New Zealand, stood at attention in the rain and wind while the late NYPD Officer Randolph Holder was mourned and remembered as a white hearse drove past. Drummers and bagpipes sounded.
Inside the church, Rev. Floyd Flake spoke to, and for, a city in pain as hundreds sat in the pews and hundreds of onlookers joined the officers waiting outside.
“God, help us,” he said. “Make us have allowance for each other’s faults. God. we ask you to unify us even when we agree or disagree.”
After a call from the pulpit to “praise God,” a family member collapsed and was attended to by another woman, kneeling by her side.
Speakers made remarks that nodded to the debates over gun-control and criminal justice reform swirling through the city and throughout the nation.
“We could blame everybody,” said Rev. Les Mullings, who was the Holder families’ pastor and stood only a few feet away from Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We could blame the politicians in Washington. We could blame the NRA. We could blame the mayor. We could blame the police union. But blame never unites….We must unite as a city, as a community, as a people.”
Holder, 33, who was born in Guyana and moved to Far Rockaway 12 years ago, was shot in the head and killed Oct. 20 responding to a report of gang-related gunshots in Upper Manhattan. He was assigned to the department’s Housing Bureau, worked out of PSA 5 and built an impressive record of police work, amassing at least 120 arrests, and quickly rose to be an elite plainclothes officer in one of Manhattan’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Both Holder’s father and grandfather were police officers in Guyana. The suspect, Tyrone Howard, has been charged with murder and robbery.
“All of New York is in pain at this moment,” de Blasio said in his eulogy. “We know our city lost a remarkable man, a man who made us better by his presence.”
As deBlasio shook the hands of Holder’s family, they remained sitting down.
Police Commissioner William Bratton clasped deBlasio on the back and walked to the pulpit.
“Randolph Holder loved the job,” Bratton said. “His dad was a cop, his grandfather was a cop. It was the family business”
With Bratton’s voice faltered as he posthumously promoted Holder to detective first grade, giving him badge number #9657.
“Officer Randolph Holder, you are relieved of your duty,” Bratton said. “We are now sending you off to your next assignment as a guardian at the gates of heaven.”
Mary Muhammad, Holder’s fiancé, spoke to the sea of faces in the vast cathedral.
“What is loss?” she asked. “There is no definition that could articulate the feeling because I know it so well.”
The day before at Holder’s wake, thousands of police officers again lined Merrick Boulevard and saluted as his casket was carried into the Allen A.M.E. Cathedral Tuesday morning. Many were crying.
Along the sprawling line police mingled with friends and family of Holder as well as residents who were there just to pay respects.
“Officer Holder was killed like an animal,” said Israel Scott, a pastor and community activist from Jamaica. There are so many things going through my mind right now, and I guess I just need to be here and show my respect. This violence between citizens and police, we got to remember that we’re all part of one human family. That’s why I’m here.”
Members of the New York Police Bomb Squad shook hands with patrolmen from Deptford, Pa. Guardian Angels stood alongside community activists. Friends hugged and held family.
“I’m here to let the police know that their lives matter,” said Calvin Hunt, who is from Harlem and knew Holder personally. He was standing across the street with a large sign that read Blue Lives Matter. “It’s just sad that all this could have been avoided. You see it on the news, but when you come to the wake and you see the body laying there, then you realize how important these cops are, man.”
Investigators said Monday a gun found over the weekend matched the weapon used in the shooting.
Holder will be buried in his native Guyana.
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
