Divers Recover Gun Used to Shoot Cop in Harlem River

Sunday, October 25, 2015 9:05 pm | 2 Minute Read

NYPD officers remove white suits worn to protect against contaminating evidence Sunday during a ground search near the scene where a gun was recovered from the Harlem River. (AP Photo/Verena Dobnik)

Divers searching the Harlem River early Sunday morning recovered a gun “consistent” with the weapon used to kill a police officer during a foot chase in Manhattan, the New York Police Department said Sunday.

Chief of Manhattan detectives William Aubry said the weapon was found around 3 a.m. It will be tested for fingerprints and DNA, as well as test fired, to determine whether it is the same gun that was used Tuesday night to shoot Officer Randolph Holder in the head.

“That firearm is consistent with the firearm that we were looking for,” Aubry said.

The police also shut down part of a major roadway in the area of the shooting for a few hours Sunday morning as they conducted a ground search.

Holder and his partner had responded to a report of shots fired near a public housing development in East Harlem on Tuesday night. When they arrived, a man said his bike had been stolen at gunpoint and the thief fled. The officers caught up to a man with a bike on a pedestrian overpass that spans a highway and traded gunfire, police said. After Holder was shot, the gunman, Tyrone Howard, ditched the bike and took off, police said. He was caught several blocks away.

The chief of detectives said the searches were a “24/7 operation” since the night of the shooting. He said the scuba team’s work was “very difficult.” The gun was under 20 feet of water and “they’re on their belly and they’re searching for it by hand.”

Holder’s funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the October 26th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.