As the city continues to mourn the loss of NYPD Officer Randolph Holder, questions are swirling over why the man accused of killing the five-year veteran was even on the street. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.
Tyrone Howard, who is accused of killing a police officer, appeared Thursday before Judge Patricia Nunez, the same judge who agreed five months ago to let him enter rehab instead of prison on a drug charge.
That decision is now the subject of a furious debate after Howard was arrested on charges of fatally shooting Officer Randolph Holder in East Harlem Tuesday night.
Howard's lawyer, Robert Levy, says allowing Howard to avoid prison was the right thing to do.
"The legislature has permitted people with drug backgrounds, who have drug-related crimes, to avoid jail by attempting, with court supervision, (to) rid themselves of their drugs problem,"
The mayor and police commissioner say Howard should have been in prison, calling him a violent career criminal who was a menace.
"He has shown no propensity, with the number of arrests of a period of time, with changing his ways," said Police Commissioner William Bratton. "And as we saw recently, his whole life has been about an escalation."
A news release last October announced Howard's arrest in a drug crackdown in East Harlem.
The Manhattan district attorney's office recommended a six-year sentence, citing Howard's four felony drug convictions, but judge Edward McLaughlin agreed to make him a candidate for rehab, sending him to Judge Nunez's court for the final decision on diversion.
The judge said of Howard, "...Having amass[ed] four felony convictions and having been out of drug treatment and having caused havoc on those who love him, prison not having worked, I've decided maybe out of frustration and exasperation, why not?"
A spokesman for the courts defended that decision, citing records showing Howard had no violent felony convictions as an adult.
Howard was arrested in a 2009 shooting, but the case was dropped for a lack of evidence.
"They were very careful in reviewing what they knew about him," Levy said.
Howard stopped attending the diversion program over the summer, and on September 1, he allegedly shot a rival. Police had been looking for him ever since but did not find him until that deadly encounter with Officer Holder.
Meantime, memorial services for Holder are being moved to a different church.
A viewing will be held next Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York in Jamaica.
His funeral take place at the same church at 3 p.m. the next day.
Holder will be buried in his native Guyana.