“Breathe, breathe!!” Sgt. Robert Zagajeski remembers shouting as he used a knife to slice through the clothing of Officer Randolph Holder.
Zagajeski doesn’t see himself as any kind of hero — that honor, he says, belongs forever to Holder, the courageous NYPD officer shot dead in East Harlem last year while chasing a drug dealer, and whose life he couldn’t save.
But on Thursday, Zagajeski was honored as a hero all the same, as one of eight “Sergeants of the Year.”
“I don’t feel comfortable about getting any award, to be honest,” he told the Post after the ceremony.
“What award do you deserve for just doing your job?” he said. “You shouldn’t get an award for that. There’s a lot of cops on that scene who each contributed to trying to help officer Holder.”
The award brought back grim memories of the frantic night of Oct. 20, 2015.
Zagajeski and his anti-crime team from the 25th precinct responded to a radio transmission of shots fired at East 120th Street and FDR Drive. He drove to try and head off suspected shooter Tyrone Howard.
Then he saw Howard face down and cuffed by fellow cops on the FDR at 125th Street.
Zagajeski recalled spinning his car around and speeding into FDR traffic down to 120th Street.
There he saw Holder’s partner, Officer Omar Wallace, who’d shot the fleeing gangbanger suspect, though only enough to slow the perp down.
“My partner got hit and the perp went this way!” shouted Wallace, who was still searching for him on foot and pointing northbound.
Zagajeski told Wallace not to worry — Howard was in custody.
Then he jumped over a railing to get to Holder, who was face down on an overpass.
“As we went up to him, we rolled him over and we saw that he sustained a gunshot wound to the head,” the sergeant recalled.
There was nothing they could do to save him.
‘When you help one of your brothers and sisters in blue, you don’t deserve an award for that. It’s what you do.’
- Sgt. Robert Zagajeski
Zagajeski would help lift the mortally wounded officer into the back of an emergency vehicle. He drove alongside that vehicle to clear traffic, then pumped Holder’s chest as he was being carried into the hospital.
Days later, Zagajeski was back on the job. And on Thursday, he was recognized for his efforts.
“We get knocked down, but we have to keep going forward because there are good people like Randy that put his life on the line, who put himself in the direct line of fire from the person who shot at somebody,” Zagajeski said after the ceremony.
“When you help one of your brothers and sisters in blue, you don’t deserve an award for that,” he continued. “It’s what you do.”
Holder is the true hero and a continued inspiration to him, he said.
“Instead of running away from the danger, he met it head on. He and his partner met it head on. And unfortunately, he lost his life. He’s a hero.
“Who are we to stop now?” he added. “We have to do what he [did], keep going. Keep going into that danger and protecting people in these communities we serve.”
Howard is being held without bail awaiting trial; his next date in Manhattan Supreme Court is Sept. 27.