Gun Thought To Have Killed Guyana-Born Cop Found

Menes de Griot, top Guyanese drummer, l, with Randolph Holder Sr. and Guyana designer Gold Teeth, r, at a wake for Officer Holder. (Shaun Walsh image)

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Oct. 26, 2015: A gun consistent with the one used to murder Guyana-born NYPD Officer Randolph Holder has been found.

The NYPD last night said the gun was found at approx. 3 a.m. on Sunday, October 25th. The .40 caliber handgun was found in the East River by NYPD divers who were deployed into the water and physically searched using their hands until they recovered the weapon.

The report came hours before friends and family members of the 33-year-old Brooklyn resident gathered for a major wake at St. Stephens Church in Brooklyn.

A “wake” is a Guyanese tradition that takes place before a burial to celebrate the life of a dead loved one.  There have been several wakes since the officer was killed last week. On Friday night, Menes de Griot, a top Guyanese drummer and herbalist, took his kumfa drums to the home of Officer Holder’s father and led a musical tribute to the slain cop.

Officer Holder’s funeral service will be held at the Greater Allen A. M. E. Cathedral of New York, 110-31 Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica, Queens. A public viewing is set for tomorrow, Tuesday October 27th, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the funeral will be held on Wednesday, October 28th  at 3 p.m., after a family-only viewing.

Jet Blue Airlines has announced it will be offering free flights to cops across the US to attend the funeral of the third generation officer.

City officials are expected to attend both events, along with numerous police officers.

Officer Holder is set to be laid to rest in his native Guyana. The Guyana Consulate in New York is collaborating with the Holder family to “ensure that the necessary support services provided by the Consulate are extended to them” while Fly Jamaica is reportedly pitching in to fly the body and family members to Guyana this Thursday, October 29th.

Officer Holder, 33, the unmarried father of one, became a hero in death after he was shot in the head allegedly by Tyrone “Peanut” Howard, 30 on October 20, 2015 in East Harlem, New York. Howard  did not enter a plea Wednesday night, October 21st, and was held without bail on first degree murder and robbery charges in the death of Officer Holder.

“Kill his f—ing ass!” Officer Holder’s sister, Sherry Holder shouted in court.

Howard is due back in court tomorrow Oct. 27th, the day of Officer’s Holder’s viewing.

Holder, a Flatlands, Brooklyn resident, was the fourth New York Police Department officer to be killed in the last 11 months, Police Commissioner William Bratton said. He was a fourth generation cop who after leaving Lodge, in Georgetown, Guyana 12 years ago, joined his father, Randolph Holder , Sr., in Far Rockaway, Queens. He lost his mother to cancer  at age 17.

Initially, he took a job as a security guard at a Toys “R” Us store and then entered the New York Police Academy, joining the department in 2010.

During his five-year career he amassed 125 arrests as rose to an elite plainclothes anti-crime unit in a dangerous pocket of northern Manhattan.

He won department citations for excellent or meritorious police duty on six occasions as he proudly wore badge No. 13340.

Nationwide, 100 officers have died in the line of duty so far in 2015, up 15 percent from this time last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a non-profit law enforcement information clearinghouse.