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Man Is Sentenced to Life Without Parole in Killing of New York Police Officer

Tyrone Howard, right, with his lawyer, Michael Hurwitz, at State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday.Credit...Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

In a Manhattan courtroom packed with police officers, the man who fatally shot Officer Randolph Holder in 2015 was sentenced on Monday to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

The man, Tyrone Howard, 32, entered the courtroom in State Supreme Court in shackles, his head high until he saw the crowd. With his head lowered and his voice barely audible, Mr. Howard said only “yes” and “no” — yes, he understood the charges, and no, he did not wish to contest them.

Facing Mr. Howard, Randolph Holder Sr., the slain officer’s father, called him a “beast” and a “miscreant.”

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Officer Randolph HolderCredit...New York Police Department

“I can’t explain the feeling I have, it’s just so bad,” said Mr. Holder, a former police officer in Guyana. “My son is dead, and he is still breathing.”

Mr. Howard, who has a criminal record dating back nearly 20 years, was convicted of murder on March 6. Officer Holder, 33, a third-generation police officer, was shot in the head at point-blank range on the East River Promenade in Harlem. Officer Omar Wallace, Officer Holder’s partner, returned fire and wounded Mr. Howard, just before he was arrested.

Linda Ford, an assistant district attorney, told the courtroom that Officer Holder had died in his partner’s arms in the ambulance. By contrast, she said, Mr. Howard “will take his last dying breath with only inmates and corrections officers accompanying him.”

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Randolph Holder Sr., center, spoke with reporters outside the courtroom as Patrick J. Lynch, left, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, listened.Credit...Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

As she asked for the maximum penalty for 10 charges against Mr. Howard, including murder, reckless endangerment and robbery, she noted that he was first arrested at age 13. Since then, there had been barely a single year in which he was not arrested, charged or jailed for robbery, assault or drugs.

In 2015, after he pleaded guilty to possession of PCP and crack, a judge allowed him to undergo outpatient treatment rather than be incarcerated. But he missed appointments and court dates, and a new warrant was issued for his arrest. After Officer Holder’s murder, Mr. Howard’s case became a flash point in the national debate over proposals to overhaul sentencing guidelines.

“This life of crime culminated in the events of October 20, 2015,” Ms. Ford said, adding that he acted “with depraved indifference to human life.”

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Officers outside the courtroom. Many attended the sentencing in support of Mr. Holder and his family.Credit...Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

Judge Michael J. Obus, in granting Ms. Ford’s request for the maximum sentence for Mr. Howard, told the courtroom that an attack on a New York police officer was an attack on the community and the city.

Mr. Howard’s lawyer, Michael Hurwitz, said he would appeal.

About a mile away, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., was attending a meeting of Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, a coalition he helped create. He called Mr. Howard’s sentence “perfectly appropriate” for “someone who had been on the wrong side of the law for a long time.”

As Mr. Howard was being led out of the courtroom, Princess Holder called to him, “Burn in hell.”

Moments later, a court officer brought Ms. Holder, the wife of the elder Mr. Holder, a cup of water and told her, “I’ll keep you in my prayers.”

As Officer Holder’s family left the courtroom, the officers applauded.

Outside the courtroom, Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the city’s largest police union, said that Mr. Howard was a “jackal” and a “monster.”

“Be careful out there,” Mr. Lynch warned the officers. “There’s more just like him.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Man Sentenced to Life Without Parole in 2015 Killing of New York Police Officer. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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