Thousands bid farewell to dead NY police officer

New York City Police Department officer Randolph Holder’s coffin is carried from his funeral service, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015, at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in the Queens borough of New York. Holder was shot and killed Tuesday, Oct. 20 while pursuing a suspect in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. AP Photo

NEW YORK, United States—Thousands of mourners braved wind and heavy rain Wednesday to attend the funeral of New York’s fourth police officer killed in the line of duty in less than a year.

READ: New York City police officer dies after being shot in head
 

Randolph Holder died on October 20 after being shot in the head in the Harlem area of Manhattan. He was a Guyanese immigrant and his body will be flown to his home country for burial Thursday.

A male suspect, who already had a lengthy criminal record, is in custody and charged with first degree murder.

Thousands of law enforcement officers from across the country gathered outside the Greater Allen A.M.E Cathedral of New York in Queens to pay their respects, joining political, community and church leaders in grieving with his family and friends.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, was applauded for demanding tighter gun control—a controversial issue in America—and clamping down on violent criminals.

“In our nation, changes must be made to keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” he said in a eulogy.

“We must make sure that those whose only aim is to harm others are simply not allowed to walk our streets,” de Blasio added.

Police commissioner Bill Bratton promoted Holder posthumously to detective, the dead officer’s life-long ambition, and handed the shield to his father to a standing ovation.

Bratton fought back the tears as he paid tribute to Holder, who wrote while in the police academy five years ago that he wanted to be a role model and a make a difference in his community.

He thanked “the thousands upon thousands standing in the rain and wind outside” as well as officers from New Zealand, Australia, Kosovo and Abu Dhabi for paying their respects.

Holder’s killing comes against a backdrop of fierce debate in America about rising crime, police tactics and perceptions that officers unfairly target black and Latino young men.

Police unions in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have demanded a boycott of Quentin Tarantino films after the Oscar-winning director protested against the deaths of unarmed suspects at police hands and called police officers murderers.

Reverend Les Mullings opened the funeral with a plea for unity. “Blaming each other is not going to help,” he said.

He urged Holder’s death to be “the springboard from which change will come… why don’t we come together and unite to find a common cause for the ills that plagues and hurts our society.”

The fallen officer’s aunt, Margaret Holder, spoke of a humble, responsible and ambitious man who loved playing football and music, and who was the DJ for family functions.

He migrated to the United States aged 21 to join his father and stepmother in Queens, and had been in the process of acquiring a home with his finance when he was killed, she said.