NYPD officer honored; shooter charged with murder

Thirty-year-old Tyrone Howard is in custody and is expected to be charged Wednesday. Howard allegedly stole a bike at gunpoint and was racing north, where Holder had been patrolling with his partner.

According to Aubry, Howard put down the bike as the officers approached him and opened fire. Holder died hours later. Holder and his partner soon caught up with the suspect, later identified as Tyrone Howard, 30, who was still in possession of the stolen bicycle.

At his arraignment on the murder charge, Howard wore a white jumpsuit and appeared to slouch down during the proceeding.

Bratton says there is no pattern to the now four NYPD officers killed over the past 11 months. Howard was wanted in relation to a separate shooting incident and had a warrant out for his arrest.

Police said Howard’s criminal history stretches back to age 13 with 28 arrests, including the shooting of an 11-year-old, in addition to robbery and assault.

Cops had also been actively searching for Howard since then – at least ten times they set out to arrest him, reports the Times, but failed to do so. The 2009 shooting was sealed and would have prevented him from being a part of the program, a decision Commissioner Bill Bratton denounced.

Officer Randolph Holder’s slaying has raised questions about the risks and potential shortcomings of drug courts, or drug diversion programs, which have been embraced nationwide as a way to ease jail overcrowding and reduce crime by attacking it at one of its sources: drug abuse.

“If ever there was a candidate for someone not to be diverted, it’s this guy”, Bratton said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly said that Howard should have been locked up as “someone like this shouldn’t have been on the streets”.

Bratton is one of the group’s founders. “You don’t know the people I have to deal with”‘.

Howard was facing charges for nonviolent drug-related offenses when a New York judge recommended the diversion program, the law enforcement source said.

But state court system spokesman David Bookstaver says Howard qualified because he was charged with selling and possessing drugs and was addicted.

As the officers pursued Howard, an exchange of gunfire ensued, and both Howard and Holder were struck by gunfire before Howard left the bicycle and fled on foot. An immigrant, he became an officer in July 2010.

Holder’s father, also called Randolph, said that his son had “always wanted to be a cop, just like his dad”.

Malika Clarke-Yarde, a friend of the fallen officer, made a tearful plea to officials as she stood beside family members.

“That’s a world out of balance, that’s something we have to fix”, the mayor said.

His cousin Natalie Andrews told The Post that Holder loved being a police officer.

Witnesses told Fox 5 that a gunman fired on police officers who were chasing him. The five-year veteran of the force was shot and killed while chasing an armed suspect in East Harlem.

Holder was pronounced dead in hospital a few time later. Officer Adam Dixon suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and was hospitalized.

“It’s critically important that you get the right people” into drug court, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police.

“As we seek to let people out of jail, we need to be very careful who we’re putting out and also be much more assertive of who we’re putting in”, Bratton said, adding that the alleged shooter’s life “has been about an escalation of crime”.