Al Sharpton to speak at slain NYPD cop's funeral
Reverend Al Sharpton and the NYPD are not usually on the same page, but on Saturday, the prominent civil rights leader was asked to speak at the funeral of a slain police officer.
Reverend Al Sharpton and the NYPD are not usually on the same page, but on Saturday, the prominent civil rights leader was asked to speak at the funeral of a slain police officer.
According to the Daily News, Sharpton will deliver remarks during the funeral services for Officer Randolph Holder at the Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Queens Wednesday.
Sharpton was approached by the minister and family of Holder and asked to speak about unity, noting that Holder, in life, had been a proponent of community policing.
“The city needs to be unified,” said the Rev. Les Mullings, pastor of the Far Rockaway Community Church of the Nazarene. “They didn’t want his death to be in vain.”
Earlier, Sharpton had spoken out about Holder and paid tribute to his memory, laying a wreath at the Police Service Area in East Harlem.
“When we find a police officer that’s trying to protect us and serve our community and actually puts their lives on the line to do that, we stand up for those police officers,” Sharpton said on Saturday at a rally. “We are not anti-police. We are anti-police-brutality.”
Holder was shot and killed on Tuesday night after a gunman opened fire on him and his partner in East Harlem. Tyrone Howard has since been arrested and charged with Holder’s murder.
