New York Officer Killed After Gunfight in East Harlem Led to a Police Chase

A New York City police officer was shot in the head and killed on Tuesday night after a gunfight between rival crews in East Harlem led to a sprawling police chase and a shootout on a footpath over the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.

The first shots rang out around 8:30 p.m., echoing through the brick and concrete yards of the East Harlem housing projects.

Gunfire is not uncommon in this place, where rival crews battle over limited turf in one of the dwindling strongholds of criminal activity in Manhattan. On Tuesday night, according to law enforcement officials, two crews got into a dispute in front of a parking garage at 445 East 102 Street between First Avenue and the F.D.R. Drive and the situation quickly escalated.

There was evidence that the crews blasted away at one another from across the street, with shell casings from at least three guns strewn on the pavement.

Calls poured into 911. Officer Randolph Holder and his partner were among a number of police officers to converge on the scene, which was quickly spreading to cover a wide swath of the area.

Suspects had fled in different directions. One took off on foot down First Avenue. Others had run across the highway and down by the East River.

One witness told the police that he had just had his bicycle stolen by a man at gunpoint. A call went out: Be on the lookout for a suspect, possibly armed, on a bicycle, riding along the promenade by the river.

Two police units converged on the promenade, one moving north from 96th Street. The other unit, Officer Holder and his partner, were moving in from 120th Street, where there is a footpath over the F.D.R. Drive, to move in from the other direction.

As Officer Holder came across the footpath, he spotted a man on a bicycle.

“There was an exchange of gunfire between the male suspect and the two officers,” Police Commissioner William Bratton said during an overnight news conference. “During this exchange, Officer Holder was struck in the head.”

Officer Holder’s partner, who was not identified, returned fire, hitting the suspect in the leg, Commissioner Bratton said, and he was apprehended near East 124th Street.

He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was expected to be released into police custody on Wednesday morning, Mr. Bratton said.

The police said that the suspect, who has not been publicly identified, was arrested a year ago in the same housing projects where the shooting took place Tuesday night.

A string of housing projects runs along First Avenue, from 101st Street through 112th Street.

They include the Jefferson Houses, the East River houses and the Wagner Houses. There are different crews in different complexes, and they often battle for turf.

“They have a history of different crews shooting, within them and between them,” said a law enforcement official familiar with the area. “So the idea of two groups shooting at each other is not something they haven’t seen before.”

Last year, the suspect in the shooting of Officer Holder was one of 19 defendants charged with selling narcotics — in most cases, crack cocaine — to undercover officers.

“The sales took place within the grounds of the East River Houses and the surrounding area including playgrounds, a basketball court, stairwells, lobbies, hallways and elevators,” according to court documents from the time. “In addition to the charges of selling cocaine, one of the defendants was charged with the unlawful sale of heroin.”

After the shooting Tuesday, three other men were taken into custody at East 111th Street for questioning, the police said.

Investigators recovered at least one gun and a bicycle, the police said.

A law enforcement official said divers had also found a loaded magazine from a semiautomatic pistol in the Harlem River.

Shell casings from as many as three weapons were found near the scene of the first shots, the law enforcement official said.

It was an emotional moment for Commissioner Bratton, who appeared to hold back tears as he spoke at the news conference at Harlem Hospital Center, where Officer Holder had died with his family at his side. After his death, his grieving father addressed his son’s colleagues.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was mourning an officer who gave his life to protect a city he loved.

“This sadness is so hard to describe,” he said.

Officer Holder, he added, was “an immigrant who wanted to give back to his city and his country, who had an exemplary record as a police officer.”

Before the news conference, dozens of police officers had gathered in an auditorium inside the hospital waiting to learn their colleague’s condition, and at least two priests were present. Around 11:15 p.m., the officers slowly began filing out of the room.

Officer Holder joined the force in July 2010, following in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather, both of whom had been police officers in Guyana.

“Three generations of police in this family,” Commissioner Bratton said, his voice breaking. “And the latest generation served here with us in New York City Police Department.”

Officer Holder worked in the Housing Bureau and was assigned to a service area that covers three precincts spanning parts of the Upper East Side and Harlem. Patrol officers in the Housing Bureau conduct so-called vertical patrols, checking for illegal activity in the halls and stairways and on the roofs.

He was the fourth officer killed since December 2014, when two uniformed police officers — Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40 — were ambushed in Brooklyn. The suspect in that shooting, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, committed suicide in a subway station. Officer Brian Moore, 25, died in May two days after he was shot by a gunman who fired into his patrol car. The suspect, Demetrius Blackwell, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and other crimes. He has pleaded not guilty.

Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said police officers were expected to carry themselves like superheroes, but episodes like Mr. Holder’s killing showed that they remain vulnerable.

Local activists said that the neighborhood experiences an increase in violence around this time of year, because of turf wars between rival crews from housing complexes.

“This is when crews of kids start robbing and stabbing each other,” said the Rev. Vernon Williams, who is known locally as the “pastor on deck.”

The police were still investigating the shooting on Wednesday. For hours, officials closed a stretch of the F.D.R. Drive between 120th and 125th Streets.

Drivers who were stuck posted images of the scene on social media. Stranded passengers left taxis and headed toward Second Avenue to find alternate ways to their destinations. The police later cleared the road and reopened it to traffic.

Officer Holder’s body was driven from the hospital around 1:45 a.m. as dozens of colleagues saluted. Not a word was spoken.

Source: NY Times