Suspect arrested in fatal shooting of New Orleans policeman

[June 22, 2015]  By Suzannah Gonzales and Carey Gillam
 
 (Reuters) - New Orleans police said on Sunday they had arrested a man suspected of shooting dead a city police officer who was transporting him to jail a day earlier.

Police said a "massive" manhunt led them to Travis Boys, 33, suspected of fatally shooting Officer Daryle Holloway before escaping Holloway's police cruiser, which crashed into a utility pole.

Holloway, 45, a 22-year New Orleans police veteran and father of three, was found in his department vehicle with a gunshot wound. He had been taking Boys to the Orleans Parish Prison on charges of aggravated battery when Boys somehow managed to acquire a gun and shoot Holloway despite the fact that his hands were handcuffed behind his back, police said.

Police said Sunday they tracked the fugitive down as he drove through a New Orleans neighborhood in a stolen pickup truck. Boys crashed the truck and fled on foot. Officers then spotted him in a convenience store and chased him as he jumped onto a public bus.

Boys was still wearing the handcuffs when he was apprehended, though they were damaged, New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison told reporters.

Police said they recovered two guns from the police cruiser in addition to Holloway's service weapon, which was found in his holster. They believe one of the additional guns, a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson, was used to shoot Holloway.

Police are trying to determine how Boys got the gun. They said he had been checked for weapons at a police station before being turned over to Holloway for transport to jail.

"We lost a hero and it is going to take time for us to recover. Our hearts break for him and his children on Father's Day," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a news conference after the arrest.

Boys will be charged with first-degree murder of a police officer, aggravated escape and illegal possession of a firearm, police said.

Holloway's death was another reminder of the dangers facing law enforcement officers in the line of duty. The issue came to the fore in recent months with the fatal shooting of three New York City police officers in two separate incidents.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Carey Gillam in Kansas City, Missouri; Editing by Frank McGurty, Rosalind Russell and Eric Walsh)

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