Family Of Slain NYPD Officer Randolph Holder Welcomes Mourners In Guyana
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Roughly 100 officers from the NYPD arrived in Guyana on a Friday flight carrying the remains of a slain comrade from the South American nation.
Randolph Holder's colleagues and his grieving relatives walked alongside his coffin as it was wheeled on the tarmac of Guyana's international airport and brought to a hearse.
Members of the Guyana police force were also on hand, according to a tweet by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
President David Granger was expected to attend Holder's funeral on Saturday at the main Catholic cathedral in Georgetown.
"We are overwhelmed by the love and support shown to us by people both in the U.S. and Guyana,'' said Holder's father, also named Randolph, a retired police officer.
Thousands attended Holder's funeral in Queens on Wednesday.
Bratton posthumously promoted Holder to detective and issued him a new gold shield with the same number of the badge worn by his father. Holder's grandfather was also a law enforcer, having served in Guyana's police force.
The elder Holder was met with thunderous applause when he accepted the gold shield from Bratton.
"We send you on your way to an assignment to be a guardian angel at the gates of heaven," Bratton said at the service.
At Guyana's airport, NYPD Capt. Rhonda O'Riley Bovell said she and about 60 other officers and city officials who accompanied Holder's coffin were from Guyana.
"We are his family and will always be supportive but I must tell you that officers are hurting. They are hurting real bad,'' she said.
Holder, a five-year veteran of the NYPD, was killed in the line of duty on Oct. 20 when he was shot in the head while responding to a report of shots fired and a bicycle stolen at gunpoint in East Harlem, police said.
The suspect in Holder's death, 30-year-old Tyrone Howard, has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery. A grand jury has indicted him, but the charges won't be announced until a state Supreme Court arraignment on Nov. 24. His attorney has said there are missing details in the case.
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