Prosecutors described in opening statements Monday the chilling moment a career criminal shot dead an NYPD cop during a foot chase in East Harlem — but the defendant wasn’t around to hear it.
Tyrone Howard, 33, refused to attend the first day of his murder trial in Manhattan — part of his “efforts to do whatever he can to derail the proceedings,” said Justice Michael Obus.
While he sat in a cell, Assistant District Attorney Linda Ford told jurors that Officer Randolph Holder, 33, and his partner came face-to-face with Howard on an E. 120th St footbridge following a drug-related shootout in October 2015.
“He knows they’re looking for him and he knows why,” she said of Howard, 33. “He took out the gun, the .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, he aimed at the officers and pulled the trigger. He fired one shot and he struck Officer Holder in the front of his head.”
The bullet tore through Holder’s brain and exited the back of his skull, and he fell to the ground. “It was not a survivable injury,” Ford said as dozens of cops watched from the gallery in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Twenty minutes earlier, Howard had been involved in a gunfight on E. 102nd St and fled north, snatching a man’s bicycle on the way, Ford said.
After the deadly confrontation on the footbridge, Howard ran north as Holder’s partner, Officer Omar Wallace, shot him in the buttocks and leg.
Wallace didn’t pursue him and turned to his partner who “lay bleeding on the ground,” the prosecutor said.
Howard allegedly dumped his gun in the East River as dozens of cops descended on the area in a massive manhunt.
The limping criminal tried to cross Harlem River Drive near 124th Street when Police Officer Kristen Swinkunas spotted him on the busy thoroughfare.
She slammed on her breaks, jumped from her car and chased him down.
Defense lawyer Michael Hurwitz suggested to jurors that Howard, who was noticeably absent, may not have been the man who shot Holder.
It was dark and everything had happened so quickly, Hurwitz said. The man whose bike was stolen was smoking a joint and may have been mistaken when he identified Howard as the thief, the lawyer said.
“They must prove identity beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hurwitz said.
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