“I’m proud as a Guyanese that this officer put a bright Guyanese on the map”, said Loraine Stephen, 63, a retired nursing assistant from Jamaica, Queens, who emigrated from Guyana 30 years ago.
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Holder’s death marked the fourth police death in New York City in the last 11 months.
“Because of the love I was so blessed to experience…”
Funeral services began just before 4 p.m. for Holder, 33, as thousands of police officers gathered in Jamaica under somber weather for a somber time.
Hundreds of mourners paid their respects on Tuesday to slain New York City Police Officer Randolph Holder, while the man accused of killing him sat in handcuffs inside a Manhattan courthouse as a grand jury indicted him for murder.
There was an especially proud turnout from the New Jersey State Police – neighbors who deeply felt the loss of Detective Holder.
Bratton said Holder ‘lived as a guardian, watching over the good, and died like a warrior…The job was certainly his calling’.
“Is it too far-fetched to think that we could have a city where black lives and blue lives both matter”, he said, noting both sides common goal to reduce gun violence.
“It should not take another death of a police officer to change our policies, or another awful campus massacre to change our policies”.
He presented it to Randolph Holder Sr. during the service to a standing ovation for the fallen officer. Police Commissioner William Bratton was there and Mayor Bill de Blasio was expected to arrive later on Tuesday. Prosecutors detailed his suspected involvement in a 2011 sentencing, but as the charges were dropped, the shooting did not factor in the current judge’s decision to set bail at $35,000 and send Howard to drug diversion. “They’ve been beholden to the NRA for most of my career in policing, I don’t see any movement away from that stranglehold that the NRA has”, he said, blaming the gun rights group’s lobbying influence.
“Cops protect us from those who would harm us if the police weren’t there”.
“Today we are funeralizing one of our best sons”, Sanders told the Queens Tribune on Wednesday.
Mr. Howard has been charged with murder and robbery.
The rally was held days after New York City cop Randolph Holder was shot dead while pursuing a bicycle thief in East Harlem.
On Sunday, NYPD’s SCUBA unit recovered a. 40 Glock pistol from the Harlem River “consistent” with the weapon used to kill Officer Holder.
The defendant was wanted on a Bronx warrant after missing a September 29 court date in the case.
When he got the call, Holder and his partner “went toward the danger”.
Holder came from a family of police officers and in 2010 was hired by the NYPD, which assigned him to the housing bureau.
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“Words can’t describe the shock of losing yet another fearless NYPD hero in such short a time span”, Goldfeder said.
