NYPD officer dies after being shot in the head while chasing suspect

Randolph Holder, a 33-year-old Guyanese immigrant, was shot around 8:30 p.m. while on duty in East Harlem, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said at a news conference early Wednesday morning.

In critical condition, the officer was taken to Harlem Hospital where dozens of fellow officers gathered to wait for news. Holder was pronounced dead at 10:22 p.m., Bratton said.

The shooting in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood happened while the 5-year veteran and his partners in the department's Housing Bureau were responding to a report of shots fired.

Witnesses told the officers a man had fled on a foot path and the officers encountered another man who told them an assailant had stolen his bicycle at gunpoint.

Holder and another officer confronted the armed man and there was an exchange of gunfire at East 120 Street and the FDR Drive, Bratton said. Holder was struck and the shooter fled on foot.

The officer “ran toward danger,” Bratton said. “It was the last time he would respond to that call.”

Bratton described the “murdered” officer with an “exemplary record” as an “immigrant who wanted to give back to his city and his country. He did everything the right way.”

Holder’s father and grandfather were police officers in Guyana, said Bratton, describing the dead officer's father, also named Randolph Holder, as “an extraordinary individual” for offering condolences to his son’s fellow officers during his own grief.

"We are humbled by Officer Randolph Holder's example, an example of service and courage and sacrifice," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "We offer our thoughts and our prayers to his family."

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said: "New York City police officers everyday go out and carry themselves like superheroes but the reality is when we're attacked we bleed, when we bleed we die and when we die we cry."

The suspect was caught several blocks away with a gunshot wound to his leg.

Bratton said the suspect was expected to be released from Cornell  early Wednesday and transferred to police custody. The suspect was not identified.

Police say Holder is the fourth police officer killed in the line of duty in the last 11 months. Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were killed in a Brooklyn ambush in December. Brian Moore was shot in the head in Queens in May.

So far this year, 101 police officers have died in the line of duty in the U.S. — 33 of those deaths caused by gunfire — according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. By early Wednesday, Holder's name already had been added to the list.

Al Jazeera with The Associated Press