NYPD Officer Shot In The Head

A New York City police officer has died after being shot in the head during a gunfight police said.

Police Commissioner William Bratton said 33-year old Officer Randolph Holder was pronounced dead late Tuesday night. Holder is the fourth city officer to be killed in New York City in the last 11 months.

During an emotional news conference at Harlem Hospital, Bratton said, "That's about as bad as it gets,' as dozens of Holder's fellow officers saluted the ambulance carrying his body.

"Tonight, he did what every other officer in the NYPD does when the call comes - he ran toward danger," Bratton said. "It was the last time he will respond to that call."

The shooting in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood happened while the five-year veteran and his partners were responding to a call of shots fired.

The AP reports that witnesses told the officers a group of men had fled on a foot path that runs adjacent to the East River, and the officers encountered another man who told them an assailant had stolen his bicycle at gunpoint. Holder and another officer confronted the armed man and exchanged gunfire when the officer was struck. The shooter fled on foot. The suspect was caught several blocks away with a gunshot wound to his leg, police said but declined to identify the suspect.

A law enforcement official said a bicycle and at least one gun were recovered, and shell casings from possibly three weapons were discovered at the scene. The official wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing probe and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. It's not clear whether more than one person fired on the officers.

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said: "New York City police officers everyday go out and carry themselves like superheroes but the reality is when we're attacked we bleed, when we bleed we die and when we die we cry."

Nationwide, 100 officers have died in the line of duty so far in 2015, up 15 percent from this time last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit law enforcement information clearinghouse. Of those, 31 were firearms-related deaths.