Oct 22, 2015 4 min read

NEW YORK – New York’s mayor and police commissioner said a career criminal accused of gunning down a police officer should never have been out on the streets, and they blasted the legal system for sending him to drug treatment instead of jail months ago.

Tyrone Howard, 30, is charged with first-degree murder and robbery, accused of stealing a bike and fatally shooting Officer Randolph Holder in the head after a chase Tuesday night. He had been out on bail and in the treatment program after an October 2014 drug arrest.

The shooting threw a spotlight on alternative programs, such as drug rehab and mental health treatment, used by cities around the country in hopes of relieving jail overcrowding and heavy caseloads, saving taxpayer dollars and, ultimately, reducing crime.

Police Commissioner William Bratton described Howard as a “poster boy for not being diverted” to a treatment-oriented drug court instead of to prison.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Howard is among the thousands of people responsible for a disproportionate amount of violence citywide. He echoed the police commissioner in saying “someone like this shouldn’t have been on the streets.”

Howard was arrested a year ago and charged with selling crack to a police officer at a public housing complex. Prosecutors asked for six years behind bars, but a judge decided he should go into the treatment program.

Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin said after the officer’s slaying he had no reason to believe Howard was violent. Court records showed he had no convictions for violent crime – something that can disqualify a person from the drug diversion program.

However, police said Howard was arrested 28 times since age 13 and had a history of violence. They said he was arrested in connection with a 2009 shooting that wounded an 11-year-old and a 78-year-old.

McLaughlin said he never saw a record indicating a shooting arrest.

Howard was bailed out of jail in February, pleaded guilty to the drug charge and was making regular court appearances until late August, when he skipped a court date, court system spokesman David Bookstaver said.

Days later, Howard shot and wounded a gang member, police said.

Investigators had made 10 attempts to arrest him at various addresses before Tuesday’s shooting.

A lawyer who represented Howard in the drug case, Robert Levy, said his client was trying to get into a residential treatment program before he skipped his court dates.

His attorney at his arraignment Wednesday on the murder charge, Brian Kennedy, said: “There’s a lot of details we don’t yet know in this tragic event. We don’t know Mr. Howard’s involvement. We don’t know if there was a gun recovered. There’s a lot of missing details.”

Several of the officer’s family members were in the courtroom, sobbing. Some shouted at Howard during the proceeding.

Holder, a five-year veteran, made 125 arrests in his career and was awarded six departmental citations for his work. The Guyana native, 33, was the son and grandson of police officers and worked in a division that polices public housing projects.

Holder and his partner had responded to a report of shots fired in East Harlem. When they arrived, a man said that his bike had been stolen at gunpoint and that the thief fled with a group of people along a footpath near the East River.

The officers caught up to a man with a bike on a pedestrian overpass that spans a highway and traded gunfire, police said. The gunman ditched the bike and fled but was caught several blocks away with a gunshot wound to his leg, police said.