What to Know
- Officer Randolph Holder was gunned down in the line of duty Oct. 20, 2015
- The five-year veteran of the force was shot in the head in East Harlem during a chase
- Tyrone Howard was found guilty last month on all counts, including aggravated murder and first-degree murder as the top charges
A career criminal who killed a 33-year-old NYPD officer during a foot chase in East Harlem in 2015 has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
About 150 police officers packed a Manhattan courtroom Monday for the sentencing of 32-year-old Tyrone Howard, convicted of killing five-year NYPD officer Randolph Holder during a police pursuit on an FDR overpass that October.
Holder and his partner were responding to reports of shots fired that fateful night when they encountered Howard on a stolen bicycle. At some point, Howard dumped the bike and ran off on foot, then pulled out a handgun and shot Holder in the head on the footbridge.
Howard had been involved in a gunfight with rival drug dealers just before he was confronted by the two officers. He was found guilty last month on all counts, including aggravated murder and first-degree murder.
On Monday, the slain officer's father, Randolph Holder Sr., told the judge that his son was a decent man whose life was wrongly cut short.
"I can't explain the feeling that I have. I just don't want to call his name, it's so bad. I just want to call him a beast," the elder Holder said of Howard, according to the Daily News. "He shouldn't be on the streets. I think he should be put away for life and throw away the keys so he can never see daylight again."
Outside court, Randolph Holder Sr. urged parents to teach their children respect for the police.
"I just want to send a message out there to the mothers and fathers to take care of their children. They deserve every day discipline ... manners ... so they can be respectful to the police."
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He said he never wants to see Howard again, adding, "He should be sent away and never see the light again... he will see the light through the bars of the prison."
PBA President Pat Lynch said, "What we saw here today is where Police Officer Randoph Holder got his courage, his honor, his fortitude -- from his family."
