Slain Brooklyn cop gets street named after him

Detective Randolph Holder, a police officer from Mill Basin who was shot and killed on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in late October, now has a street named after him near his childhood home at Collier Avenue and Briar Place in Far Rockaway.

Photo courtesy of the NYPD
Photo courtesy of the NYPD

Holder — who was 33 and in his fifth year with the NYPD — lived there after emigrating from Guyana where his father and grandfather were both police officers. As a probationary officer in the Police Academy, he explained in a letter why he wanted to be a part of the NYPD: “Growing up, all I wanted to do was to make a difference in my community and become a role model,” Holder wrote.

Holder was not the only one to be honored. On Thursday, February 25, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into effect the co-naming of 42 streets and public spaces after “individuals and cultural icons,” who, he said, have, “helped mold our city into a stronger, safer and more creative place.”
Holder was one of three NYPD officers killed in the line of duty to be honored; two FDNY firefighters also had streets named in their memory. Other individuals memorialized included painter Norman Rockwell, former New York Knick Anthony Mason, Rapper Robert “Pumpkinhead” Diaz, as well as community leaders and activists.

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said, “All the people who are having streets named for them today are people who have given their lives to New York City in one way or another. Today we’re offering these great New Yorkers a small token of gratitude in the form of these street co-namings.”

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