New York Police Officer Dead After Being Shot in East Harlem
Police said that an NYPD officer has died after being shot in the head around 8:30 pm on Tuesday evening in East Harlem, the New York Times reports.
Part of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, between 120th and 125th Streets, was closed as investigators descended upon several locations in the neighborhood.
The officer, who was taken to Harlem Hospital in serious condition, was a housing impact cop from the 23rd Precinct, the New York Post reports. One suspect was in custody and a weapon recovered at the scene.
ABC 7 reports that the officer was struck in the head in a shootout with the suspect, who was in turn struck in the leg. The suspect was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center; his condition is unknown.
Update 12:17 am: At a press conference just after midnight, Commissioner Bratton confirmed that 33-year-old Officer Randolph Holder, an immigrant from Guyana and 5-year-veteran of the force whose father was also a policeman, was killed in the line of duty on Tuesday. Holder is the fourth NYPD officer murdered in New York in the last 11 months, Bratton said. “That’s about as bad as it gets.”
Holder was responding to calls reporting gunshots in East Harlem around 8:30 pm on Tuesday, Bratton said. “There may have been several firearms in that incident.”
One caller reported that their bicycle had been stolen at gunpoint. Responding officers confronted a man heading north on a bicycle when the confrontation leading to the fatal shooting took place.
In addition to the alleged shooter, who was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the leg, Bratton said that three other men have been taken into custody and are being questioned.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch also spoke. “We need your support,” Lynch said. “We need your support every day, on every corner, in every neighborhood, so we can continue to carry ourselves like superheroes, so we can save you.”
Update 11:25 pm: In addition to also reporting that the officer has died, DNAinfo has more details on the circumstances of the shooting:
The unnamed officer, who works in the NYPD’s Housing Bureau, was shot in the head when he responded to a report of a robbery with gunfire in a park at East 102nd Street and the Harlem River Drive at roughly 9 p.m., sources said.
The gunman opened fire when the officer and his partner pulled up to the scene in their vehicle, sources said.
Sources said the shooter fled down First Avenue and then over tried to go over a bridge into The Bronx when he was captured by police.
Update 11:15 pm: NY1 is reporting that, per multiple sources, the injured officer has died.
Image via ABC 7. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.