The New York police officer who was shot and killed while on duty in the city earlier this month was buried in his native Guyana Saturday in a ceremony attended by dozens of colleague officers, the local city mayor and President David Granger.
Randolph Holder, Jr. who served for five years as an NYDP officer was killed on Oct. 20 after being shot in Manhattan’s East Harlem District as he and his partner had been chasing a man while responding to a call of shots fired in the neighborhood.
NYPD officers braved heavy early morning rain as the hearse delivered his body to the main Catholic Cathedral and then marched alongside Guyanese colleagues officers dressed in full ceremonial uniform to the city’s sprawling cemetery where he was interred with a 21-gun salute.
Hundreds lined the streets to send off an officer most had never known and walked behind the official parade to the cemetery about a mile and a half from the church.
Captain Reymundo Mundo who had at times supervised Holder described the late officer as “a humble man, a true hero of the NYPD, a true hero of Guyana. Guyana should be very proud that it had raised such a wonderful son.”
Holder’s uncle Desmond King said, “I have never seen a young man who wanted to emulate his father so much as he did. He told me that the job was getting scary but this was a risk he had to take. I feared for him. He lost his life in the line of service.” His father and grandfather had served in the Guyana Police Force.
Holder finished high school in Guyana before joining his father in New York.
More than 100 NYPD officers and members of Guyanese diaspora organizations flew to the country for the funeral.
