Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:51pm EDT

New Orleans policeman shot and killed while transporting suspect

BY VICTORIA CAVALIERE

New Orleans police officer Daryle Holloway, is shown in this undated handout photo provided by the New Orleans Police Department June 20, 2015. REUTERS/NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPT/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS


A New Orleans police officer was shot and killed on Saturday while transporting a suspect to jail, and a manhunt was under way for the gunman, officials said.

Daryle Holloway, a 22-year New Orleans police veteran, was found in his Police Department vehicle, which had crashed into a utility pole, with a gunshot wound to his body, police said in a statement.

A suspect he was transporting to a local jail, 33-year-old Travis Boys, was missing from the car and is the focus of a manhunt in connection with the officer's murder, police said.

"According to the initial investigation, Boys shot Officer Holloway from within the vehicle during the transport. After the vehicle crashed, Boys fled the scene," the statement said.

Holloway, 45, was not the arresting officer, police said.

New Orleans police, assisted by state law enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service, fanned out from the crash site looking for Boys, police added.

"This despicable, cowardly act represents the lowest of the low," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a statement. "Killing an officer in the line of duty is an attack on our community that will not stand."

Boys had been arrested on charges of aggravated battery and outstanding warrants and was being transported to Orleans Parish Prison when the shooting occurred.

Boys had been handcuffed with his hands behind his back but was somehow able to get them to the front of his body, police superintendent Michael Harrison told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

It was unclear if the suspect shot Holloway with his service weapon.

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0P00QU20150620