NYPD officer dies after being shot in the head in East Harlem

A 33-year-old NYPD officer was shot in the head while chasing a gunman in East Harlem Tuesday night, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said. The officer, identified as Randolph Holder, died later at Harlem Hospital.

Officials say he was responding to an armed robbery in a park at about 8:30 p.m., and after a chase was shot near Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and 120th Street. Police found a man shot in the leg five blocks away from the scene, and he was taken into custody as a person of interest. At least one gun and a bicycle have been recovered by investigators, police said, and part of F.D.R. Drive was shut down because of police activity.

Bratton said Holder was a native of Guyana, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said from the hospital "this whole city is in mourning." Holder was assigned to the Housing Bureau and covered three precincts across the Upper East Side and Harlem, The New York Times reports, checking for illegal activity in stairways, halls, and on roofs. Area activists say around this time of year, the neighborhood sees more violence because of escalating turf wars between rival crews from housing complexes. "This is when crews of kids start robbing and stabbing each other," Rev. Dr. Vernon Williams told the Times.

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