By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, JAMAICA, NY, Thurs. Oct. 29, 2015: Slain Guyana-born New York City Police Officer Randolph “Randy” Holder was promoted to detective in death Wednesday by NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Addressing thousands who packed into the Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens, Bratton announced the posthumous promotion for Officer Holder.
The announcement elicited a standing ovation inside the Queens church where Officer Holder’s body rested inside a gold casket. Bratton presented the slain cop’s father with the detective’s Badge which was numbered 9657, the same number Randolph Holder, Sr. once wore as a police officer in his native Guyana.
Officer Holder “lived as a guardian, watching over the good, and died like a warrior, fighting against the bad,” said Bratton, noting the slain officer followed his father and his grandfather into law enforcement. “Because being able to do both is part of what we do. This job was certainly his calling.”
Thousands of cops, including several former Guyana police officers, stood shoulder-to-shoulder in rainy conditions to bid adieu to the fallen officer who Bratton said is now standing guard in heaven.
Officer Holder’s body is being flown to Guyana today for burial there on Saturday.
The Rev. Leslie Mullings, who led the 2-hour service in the Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Jamaica, called for a crackdown on the trafficking of out-of-state guns in New York.
The .40-caliber weapon that police believe was used to kill Holder, 33, came to East Harlem from South Carolina, police said.
Tyrone (Peanut) Howard, 30, was arrested after Holder’s partner shot him in the leg as the suspect tried to flee the murder scene in East Harlem.
