Residents fearful in East Harlem complex where police shooting suspect lived

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The suspected gunman charged with murdering an NYPD officer is off the street now, but that's little relief to residents living in fear in the public housing complex he called home.

The suspect was not a tenant in the East River Houses, but was apparently living there with his relatives.

There was no answer at the suspect's last known address Thursday, where his neighbors claimed they hardly knew Tyrone Howard.

"No, never saw him," said one neighbor.

"I seen his face before but I don't really know the guy," said another.

Others told us he was vaguely familiar, but no one claimed to know him at all.

"I might have passed him by, didn't even know..never communicated with him," said neighbor Abraham Reyes.

Except for his time behind bars, police officials say Tyrone Howard spent his life in the East River Houses, selling drugs and intimidating tenants and rival dealers.

Neighbors there say gunfire is a fact of life.

"All the time, all the time, all the time," said neighbor Millie Valentin. "I've been in the neighborhood 60 years and it's not easy. You have to be looking around all the time."

In a statement, a spokesman for NYCHA said "Tyrone Howard was not listed as a tenant of East River Houses. But NYCHA knew he was at least sporadically living with his child's mother and grandmother and took measures to remove him through the permanent exclusion policy based on his known criminal history."

How effective that was is not clear. And Thursday the PBA President, Patrick Lynch, visited PSA 5 to console and to reassure Randolph Holder's fellow officers.

"We've had four police officers killed. That's not an anamoly, that's happening because they feel emboldened on the street," said Lynch. "Normal, routine disputes are turning violent because the perps are emboldened to fight. In this case he was emboldened to pull a weapon and to pull the trigger."