Slain NYPD Officer Randolph Holder was honored Friday with a street dedication ceremony in his Queens neighborhood.
“Today is a very a bittersweet day,” said Holder’s father, Randolph Holder Sr., at the somber ceremony on Briar Place in Far Rockaway. “It started with a very sad day a year and nine months ago, but today is a very special day.”
Holder, 33, was gunned down on Oct. 20, 2015, during a foot pursuit along the FDR Drive promenade in East Harlem after he and another housing bureau officer witnessed a shooting from the roof of 420 E. 102nd St.
Holder Sr. said his son died doing what he did best: protecting the city.
“I think my son was a good, disciplined guy, man, officer and a gentleman,” he said. “When everyone of us are asleep, my son is out there watching over us.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and a number of other local officials also attended the street renaming ceremony.
De Blasio called Holder a “great man,” who lived the American dream, “literally.”
“He came here to the Rockaways from Guyana to carry out a family legacy that’s extraordinary,” de Blasio said. Holder’s father, grandfather and great uncle were all uniformed police officers in Guyana.
By renaming Briar Place after Holder, O’Neill said the city keeps the memory of a hero alive.
“We put up signs to remember the heroes of the NYPD,” he said. “As we move through the years, maybe some young man or young girl will look up at that sign and a person will tell them what a person Randolph Holder was, what a great job he did and why he became police officer and why people become police officers.”
The gunman who took Holder’s life, 32-year-old Tyrone Howard, was found guilty on multiple charges, including aggravated murder and first-degree murder, in March 2017.
Holder was posthumously promoted to detective soon after his death.
