Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the sentencing of TYRONE HOWARD, 32, to life in prison for the murder of NYPD Detective Randolph Holder in East Harlem in October 2015. On March 6, 2017, the defendant was convicted by a New York State Supreme Court jury of Aggravated Murder and Murder in the First Degree, among other charges.
“Life in prison is the most severe sentence a defendant can receive in New York State – it is fully warranted in this case,” said District Attorney Vance. “Detective Randolph Holder was murdered in the line of duty by a young man with an illegal firearm. No one in the criminal justice system takes a life sentence lightly, and I hope it brings a sense of closure to Detective Holder’s loved ones and all the members of the NYPD.
“Despite New York’s strong gun laws, out-of-state guns continue to make their way onto our streets. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and our partners in the NYPD will continue to do everything in our power to eradicate the flow of these illegal weapons into our City.”
As proven at trial, at approximately 8:30 p.m. on October 20, 2015, on East 102nd Street between FDR Drive and First Avenue, HOWARD fired multiple shots at a group of individuals and then ran north on the East River Promenade. A few minutes later, HOWARD approached a man on the East River Promenade, stole his bicycle at gunpoint, and rode the bicycle north along the path.
At approximately 8:43 p.m., in the vicinity of the East River Promenade at the East 120th Street footbridge, HOWARD encountered Police Officer Randolph Holder and his partner, who were responding to the earlier shooting. HOWARD then intentionally shot Officer Holder one time in the temple, killing him. He fled and was apprehended approximately two minutes later on the median of FDR Drive in the vicinity of East 124th Street. Officer Holder was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective on October 28, 2015.
Assistant District Attorneys Linda Ford, Senior Trial Counsel, and Michelle Warren handled the prosecution of the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Warren J. Murray, Chief of Trial Bureau 50, and Executive Assistant District Attorney John Irwin, Chief of the Trial Division. Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast, former Assistant District Attorney Sherita Walton, Senior Investigative Analyst Amanda Epstein, Investigative Analyst Evelyn Vargas, and Technology Analyst Matthew Brazaitis assisted with the case.
District Attorney Vance thanked Officer Omar Wallace of Police Service Area 5, Police Officers Kristen Swinkunas, Jaysen Basnight, Michael Ganz and Christopher Zollino of the 32nd Precinct, Police Officers Christopher Havlik, Alton Neil, Andres Guzman, Thomas Tunstall, Frank Gashi, and Sam Houari of Police Service Area IRT, Danitra Greene of the NYPD Communications Division, Detectives Jonathan Fox and Colleen Horan of the Ballistics Lab, Detectives Charles Freitag, Mark Worthington and Richard Koprowski of the Manhattan North Homicide Squad, Detective William Dunn of the 23rd Precinct Detective Squad, Detectives Dennis O’Sullivan, Jason Curley, John Facchini, and Police Officer Jason Ramirez of the Emergency Services Unit, Detectives Matthew Pecora, John Mortimer, and Joseph Butaskek of the NYPD Scuba Team, and all the members of Police Service Area 5, the 19th Precinct, the 23rd Precinct, and the 25th Precinct.
