Life sentence for killer of Far Rockaway native

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Tyrone Howard, 32, of Manhattan, faces a mandatory life sentence without parole after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of first-degree murder on March 6. The verdict comes after four days of deliberations for the 2015 killing of Randolph Holder, the New York Police Department Housing Bureau officer, who grew up in Far Rockaway.

Holder, 33, who lived in Brooklyn and was buying a house in Valley Stream before to his death, was a five-year veteran of the NYPD. He was chasing Howard for allegedly stealing a bicycle on Oct. 20, 2015, when Howard jumped off the bike and fired a single shot into Holder’s forehead shortly after 8:30 p.m. near the F.D.R. Drive in Manhattan.

Holder and his partner, Omar Wallace, were in pursuit after two groups of men were seen exchanging gunfire on East 102nd Street in Harlem. After Holder was hit, Wallace returned fire and shot Howard in the leg.


“The jury showed courage and made a proper verdict in the name of law and order,” James McDermott, president of the Nassau Country Police Benevolent Association, said in prepared statement. “Officer Holder was a fellow officer that dedicated his life to the residents of New York. My heart goes out to his family that had to suffer so long until today’s announcement, that justice was served.”

Holder, a third-generation police officer, was buried in a family plot at the Lapentir Cemetery in Georgetown, Guyana.