Funeral of slain New York City officer draws thousands

In the church Wednesday, the police commissioner praised Wallace, saying he provided critical information that helped other officers nab the gunman two days later: “On that awful night, he defended us and he defended his partner….”

New York City Police Department officer Randolph Holder’s coffin is carried from his funeral service, Wednesday, October 28, 2015, at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in the Queens borough of New York. Drummers and bagpipes sounded.

“The issue remains a significant problem, and the reason it remains a significant problem is the easy and replete accessibility of huge amounts of firearms, particularly from down south. And our efforts up here, we’re trying to deal with it up here, but we have a spigot that’s wide open down there, and we don’t have arm or the ability to shut that spigot down there”, he said. “God. we ask you to unify us even when we agree or disagree”.

Speakers made remarks that nodded to the debates over gun-control and criminal justice reform swirling through the city and throughout the nation.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, attending the fourth NYPD police funeral this year, spoke of Holder as a family man who often started stories with “my grandmother taught me”. “And I know, again, that people look at the current political environment in Washington and think it’s impossible”, he said. We could blame the mayor. “You touched your community, your city and now your country”.

Police unions in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have demanded a boycott of Quentin Tarantino films after the Oscar-winning director protested against the deaths of unarmed suspects at police hands and called police officers murderers.

The threat report comes at a time of tension between many police departments and the neighbourhoods they cover.

Tyrone Howard, the 30-year-old suspect in the murder, was indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday, according to prosecutors.

That’s when I decided I could be a role model and make a difference in my community and in New York City… “They didn’t pull back”, Police Commissioner William Bratton said. “His dad was a cop, his grandfather was a cop”.

With Bratton’s voice faltered as he posthumously promoted Holder to detective first grade, giving him badge number #9657.

“I thought my coming might give a sense of unity in the city; that we can disagree on cases and on policies but that we are united that the senseless and ruthless killing of officers like your son must be denounced”, Sharpton said in the letter.