NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A handcuffed prisoner in a moving police cruiser somehow managed to grab a gun, fatally shoot the officer at the wheel and escape from the vehicle, which careened into a utility pole at a busy intersection, police said Saturday.
Officer Daryle Holloway, 45, died at a hospital, police chief Michael Harrison said. Meanwhile, an intense manhunt was on for Travis Boys, 33, the suspect who had been arrested on an aggravated assault charge and was being taken to jail when he escaped.
The New Orleans Crimestoppers organization announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to Boys' arrest.
"He will be caught and he will be brought to justice for the murder of Officer Holloway and for this assault on our entire community," Harrison said in a police department statement.
The shooting happened Saturday morning as Boys was handcuffed in the back seat of the vehicle. Boys managed to get his hands from behind his back to the front and obtain a weapon as well, Harrison told reporters at the scene in a video interview posted on the department's Facebook page.
Boys got to the front seat through an opening in the cage that separates the front and back seats and shot Holloway, Harrison said.
"Officer Holloway put up a fight to try to get the subject to not exit the vehicle but succumbed to his injuries," Harrison said.
Department spokesman Tyler Gamble said police were trying to determine what weapon Boys used and how he obtained it, but do not believe Boys used the officer's gun.
A helicopter circled overhead as marked and unmarked units from state police and other law enforcement agencies cruised the side streets searching for the suspect.
Harrison said Holloway was not the arresting officer but was transporting Boys to a jail when the shooting occurred.
PHOTOS: New Orleans Officer Killed
Holloway had been a member of the New Orleans Police Department since 1992. He was the father of three children.
Harrison said he met with two of those children and Holloway's former wife at the hospital after he died. "As a new chief, it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life," said Harrison, who became chief last year.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu decried the killing as "the lowest of the low" and called on the public to help police with information on Boys' whereabouts.
"Killing an officer in the line of duty is an attack on our community that will not stand," Landrieu said in a statement. "The heart and soul of New Orleans is heavy today as our community mourns one of our city's finest."
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Associated Press writer Chevel Johnson contributed to this report.
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